Rantz: Council candidate blames UW death on ‘white masculinity’ then fundraises off it

A 19-year-old woman tragically died at the University of Washington, after slipping on ice. While it was later determined she died from a blood clot in her lung, it didn’t stop one Seattle City Council candidate from blaming a meme page and “white masculinity.”

Then, he actually used the death to fundraise for his campaign, but now he refuses to comment about it.

RELATED: UW student died from blood clot in lung
RELATED: UW student dies after slipping on ice

Shaun Scott, a fringe District 4 council candidate, claims a UW student has been “credibly accused” of helping to “organize students to pour ice water on walkways so you could get an extra snow day.”

The student he accuses is UW College Republican President Chevy Swanson. Scott retweeted a Twitter user citing a joke Facebook event where students said they’d “pour water on campus so we have another ‘snow day” the day before the deadly fall. A second event said it was to “Pour water on campus part 2: electric boogaloo.”

Only, the event Scott tied to Swanson didn’t happen — it was a joke. It was something Scott could have figured out before publicly calling out a college student, implying he’s responsible for a classmate’s death. In fact, Swanson says he has no connection to the event beyond being a member of the Facebook group that created the event page.

“A member of a UW meme Facebook group meant for sharing campus specific memes created the first event, which got a lot of traction as hundreds of students RSVPed and shared as a joke,” Swanson told the Jason Rantz Show. “The second one was by a Facebook page that I am not an admin of, yet people fraudulently push a claim that I created the event. It is clear to me that many people, including the Seattle City Council Candidate Shaun Scott are using an unfortunate accident on the UW campus in order to push their political narrative. Worse though is that Shaun Scott is using this death to advertise his campaign.”

Beyond this, had the event actually happened, it wasn’t even at the site the student slipped and fell. Drumheller Fountain is about two buildings away from Red Square, the site of the fictitious event.

Scott, weirdly, demanded Swanson answer for the event, claiming to the 21-year-old: “You don’t get to sit this out. What is your response?” It’s unclear why Scott just called out Swanson, and not the named student in the screenshot of the Facebook event.

When he didn’t get a response, Scott bizarrely tweeted: “It isn’t the 1950s anymore, and you guys aren’t ‘Animal House.’ America is done suffering the ‘good clean fun’ of destructive White masculinity. When I get elected, I will be your councilmember too. The community needs accountability from you.”

Yes, he’s actually blaming “white masculinity” for a woman’s death. When Scott was called out for his “crazy” response from a Twitter user, he retweeted the criticism to ask people to donate to his campaign.

I’m not entirely sure I know what’s worse: blaming white masculinity for a woman’s death or trying to raise money off of it.

I reached out to Scott for an interview on my show. He responded, via Twitter: “Out of respect for the family of the girl who died, I will respectfully decline the opportunity to appear on your show and discuss this matter. I understand that they don’t want anyone doing interviews about the death at this time.”

I then asked for a statement on whether it was appropriate to raise funds off of the death, why he specifically targeted Swanson, and if he regrets his criticism given the details he now knows. He has not yet responded.

His response: “Out of respect for the family of the girl who died, I will respectfully decline the opportunity to discuss this matter with you, and will not engage this discussion any further.”

His tweets implying an innocent kid and white masculinity are responsibility for a death, then trying to fundraise off it, remain online.

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