GETTYSBURG, Pa. — At least two students at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania have been suspended from the swim team after a report that a racial slur was scratched on a student’s body, officials said.
Officials received “a deeply troubling report that a racial slur was scratched onto a student using a plastic or ceramic tool,” officials at the 2,200-student private liberal arts school in Gettysburg said in a statement last week.
“This is a serious report, which is actively evaluated through the student conduct process,” the college said. “At this time, the students involved are not participating in swim team activities.” The school declined to release further details, citing that process, as well as privacy laws.
It is believed to have happened during an “informal social gathering in an on-campus residence” and was first reported by upperclassmen on the swim team, Gettysburg College President Robert Iuliano said.
Iuliano described feeling “deep concern about what happened” and the impact on those who have long been underrepresented on campus, as well as the implications “for a community that continues its evolving efforts to create a truly inclusive environment.”
“Regardless of the relationship, and regardless of the motivation, there is no place on this campus for words or actions that degrade, degrade or marginalize based on one’s identity and history,” he said in a statement that also warned against speculation “based on fragments of information that may or may not be correct.”
The city’s police chief, Robert Glenny Jr., said he contacted the college after hearing news reports and learned the victim chose to handle the case through the college’s internal process, despite college officials encouraging the person to take the matter to the police, WGAL-TV reported.