‘Violent threat’ shuts down Evergreen State College

An Evergreen State College student says that possible threats from a local white supremacist group may be behind the the decision to shut the school down.

Junior student Taylor was on campus when she received the notice to leave.

“Kind of the general buzz around campus right now is that it was a bomb/active shooter threat,” she told KIRO Radio.

“There have been threats from some local white supremacists that they are going to come and cleanse the campus of people of color,” she said.

The threats come after a multicultural group suggested white people leave campus for a “day of absence.”

The campus closed just after 11 a.m. The school’s website directed students and staff to either leave campus or return to their resident’s halls.

College spokesman Zach Powers told The Olympian that the closure was “out of an abundance of caution … due to a violent threat against the college received by local law enforcement.”

Evergreen has been at the center of a controversy involving claims of racism. Protests began in mid-May in response to campus police questioning black students, KIRO 7 reports.

Tensions reached a new high after the public airing of an email exchange between school employees over a planned anti-racist “day of absence” event. Rashida Love, director of the First People’s Multicultural Advising Services program, sent an email asking for some white students to volunteer not to be on campus for the event, to leave the college more open for students of color, said college spokesman Zach Powers.

A Republican state lawmaker from Eastern Washington on Wednesday blasted recent protests alleging racism at The Evergreen State College and said he wants the Legislature to privatize the school.

Rep. Matt Manweller (R-Ellensburg) plans to introduce a bill that would ratchet down state funding for Evergreen over five years, he said in an interview.

KIRO 7 contributed to this story.

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