Bias incidents at Vassar were a hoax as one of the culprits was 'the transgender student leading the investigations into the offensive graffiti'
- Six bias incidents of graffiti were reported on the school's campus
- Messages included offensive threats at transgender students and African Americans
- Claims were investigated by student-led group and school officials later realized that one of the group leaders was behind the graffiti
- Both of the students involved have left the school
|
Alleged culprit: Genesis Hernandez is believed to be one of the two people behind the faked reports of offensive and racist graffiti on Vassar's campus
Administrators at Vassar College have discovered that the multiple incidents of offensive graffiti messages attacking black and transgender students were done by one of the students who led the group tasked with investigating the crimes.
One of the culprits was revealed as a transgender student in charge of the Bias Incident Reporting Team, and officials said that the offending pair were the ones behind some of the graffiti.
The school's director of media relations told MailOnline that they have only been able to pinpoint two of the six incidents to the pair, and the investigation into the other incidents is ongoing.
Some of the messages- though it is unclear whether they were the ones attributed to the guilty pair or not- included offensive sentiments such as 'Hey Tranny. Know Your Place' and 'Avoid Being B****es'.
Another message found on a student's door was 'F*** N*****', showing that gender identity was not the only bias issue being addressed by the culprit.
Vassar sent out an email to students on November 14 telling them that the school's Bias Incident Response Team had been told of at least six different messages that were spray painted on dorm room doors across campus.
Disturbing the peace: Vassar College, in upstate New York, became concerned when six alleged instances of bias graffiti were reported, only to learn later that they were staged by the group reporting them
Adding up: The school did not formally name Genesis Hernandez as one of the individuals behind the scheme, but the transgender student dropped out of school and left his prominent positions in student government the same day
The student-led group was designed to formulate the reports and provide support for the victims.
The Daily Caller reports that five days after the initial email was sent, the school president had to send out another saying that the bias incidents were perpetrated by two students, one of whom was a leader of BIRT and actively involved in student government.
'It is our unfortunate duty to report that two Vassar students have admitted responsibility for creating a number of recent bias and hate-speech messages in public spaces on campus,' Vassar president Catharine Hill wrote in the email.
'They also falsely reported these as anonymous messages. Sadly, our community has been deeply hurt by these actions.'
Neither of the students' names were listed in the email and it said that they both had left the school voluntarily.
'Evidence showed that two students who were responsible for some of the incidents but... we do not know if they were responsible for all of them,' Jeff Kosmacher, Vassar director of media relations, told MailOnline.
He said that criminal charges against the pair are 'not in our plans at this time'.
One of the individuals involved remains a mystery, but because of the other's involvement in campus groups, the second has since been reported to be Genesis Hernandez.
Connected: Hernandez, a junior at the school, led the Bias Incident Response Team and allegedly made up the reports of graffiti disparaging African Americans and transgender students
Hernandez was a junior at the school and the vice president of the Vassar Student Association, which acts as the student government.
He was a leader in a number of gay and lesbian support groups on campus and is featured in a video, uploaded to Youtube by Vassar, at an equality rally.
While the school's only formal statement on about the suspects was the initial email where they were not named, another clue about Hernandez's involvement came when the president of the Vassar's student government sent out an email announcing the vacated position of vice president.
- VIDEO: Moment Obamas' dog Sunny knocks over little girl
- VIDEO: GoPro shows you what it's like being chased and eaten...
- GRAPHIC CONTENT: Moment dead Sperm Whale EXPLODES
- Ron Burgundy hilarious interview with Broncos' Peyton...
- CCTV: Flames do not engulf supercar until MINUTE after crash
- Paul Walker's father pays tribute to film star son
- Dancing usher and young fan reunite on Kimmel
- ON CAMERA: Moment Paul Walker's girlfriend arrives at family...
- Paul Walker died from fire and crash impacts
- Disturbing CCTV of girl who brutally beat baby left in...
- Not for the faint hearted. Japanese shock tactic to sell...
- Tragic Fast & Furious actor predicts a 'funeral' in movie...
- Paul Walker secretly bought Iraq war veteran $9,000...
- Pictured: Paul Walker's devastated girlfriend makes...
- Revealed: Fast & Furious actor Paul Walker SURVIVED crash...
- Obama's new dog Sunny knocked over a little girl at the...
- Paul Walker crash on CCTV: Video of Porsche GT spinning off...
- Rielle Hunter is 'depressed' over John Edwards' new...
- Horror for mother-of-two as she live-tweets deadly car...
- Family of 11 'pedophiles' arrested in case of missing...
- Paul Walker's long-term girlfriend 'broken up' over star's...
- GoPro shows you what it's like to be chased and eaten by a...
- From Tinseltown to tsunami-zone: Moving never-before-seen...
- The adorable and unlikely friendship between a fox and a dog...
iloura, Des Moines, 1 hour ago
When are people going to learn creating a hoax and committing a crime to bring exposure to an issue like this will just make things worse for everyone in the GLBT community. They really don't think stuff like this through, like people will never catch them in a lie. Sad.