By Isidro Camacho
After two weeks of investigating the anti-gay graffiti spray-painted on a Washington and Lee University student house and parked cars March 3, Lexington police still have brought no charges. W&L officials said on the day of the vandalism that the police had identified the student responsible.
Police acknowledge they are investigating the case, but decline to name a suspect.
On March 3, students at the Sustainability House on East Nelson Street awoke to find their side door covered with red spray paint. In scrawled letters, someone had written “die” and “flamer,” and a name, apparently targeting a student who was living inside the house. The person responsible had also spray-painted several cars in the parking lot with similar comments.
The university brought a formal complaint to the Lexington Police following the incident, according to Sidney Evans, the university’s dean of student affairs. Since then, it has been up to the police department to decide if criminal charges can be brought against the student. Evans said police are still investigating.
Later in the afternoon after the incident, the school’s student-run Executive Committee released an email connecting the unnamed student to the fraternity Beta Theta Phi.
The email said, “No member of Beta shares the beliefs portrayed in Davidson Park, and the leaders of Beta have taken appropriate action concerning the membership of that student.”
Soon after the incident, the student withdrew from the university, Evans said. She said the university may not force a student to withdraw.
By withdrawing from the school, the student evades being investigated by the Student-Faculty Hearing Board. This disciplinary body deals specifically with cases that involve harassment and discrimination.
Evans emphasized, however, that if the student wished to re-enroll in the university, “he will face conduct charges.”
Sam Gibson, a member of the Student Judicial Council, which has jurisdiction over certain other areas of student misconduct, thinks that the student would face a stern punishment if he faced the Student-Faculty Hearing Board.
“W&L prides itself by handling everything within the community” Gibson said.
Tory Smith, a sophomore living on the first floor of the Sustainability House, recalled a heavy police presence as early as 6 a.m. on March 3. When she left for class, she said she saw police all around her building, but none of them questioned her or her fellow housemates. Later that day, after the graffiti were removed, her resident advisor told her what was going on.
“The school really didn’t say anything to us about [the incident],” Smith said. Evans did, however, send to the W&L community an email that day
Evans said that she was especially proud of the W&L community for coming together to help with the investigation following the incident.
“Several students came forth to tell us who did it and to help the victim through this tough time” Evans said.