RALEIGH N.C.
N.C. State University police are trying to find out who left a noose made of toilet paper dangling from a restroom stall door in the Sullivan Shops building.
"This could be someone's idea of a prank, or it might constitute a crime," Chancellor James Oblinger said. "In either case, it is inappropriate. This is an act that has become symbolic of racial hatred."
An employee found the 10-inch noose Thursday morning in the building that houses a maintenance shop for school vehicles. Few students use the facility, which is on the far western edge of campus and away from residence halls and classrooms.
School spokesman Keith Nichols said campus police were talking to employees who work in the building.
Oblinger said anyone found responsible would face discipline from the university and possibly criminal charges.
"Even if it is intended as a prank, it is disruptive and an offense to a safe learning and working environment," he said.
Some students suggested the noose was inspired by a recent spate of news reports of nooses left in other locations. Those include a noose left on a black professor's door at Teachers College at Columbia University in New York, in a black Coast Guard cadet's bag and on a Maryland college campus.
They also figured in the case of the so-called Jena Six case in Louisiana, where six black teenagers are accused of beating a white student after nooses were hung from a tree on a high school campus there.
"That's really shocking," said Sarah Elsayid, a senior political science major at N.C. State. "They all seem like copycats."
Information from: The News & Observer, http://www.newsobserver.com
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