Investigation into racist incident continues

Campus Security stalled by lack of information

The four students implicated in a racist incident on Nov. 14 still haven’t been identified.

A faculty member reported that on her way to teach a class in the afternoon, she was forced off of a sidewalk and subjected to racial slurs by four male students wearing engineering jackets.

Campus Security has been working with the Office of the Principal, Office of the Vice-Principal (Academic), the Faculty of Applied Science and the Human Rights Office to find the students responsible for the incident.

“To date, there’s been no information, no calls, that have come into Campus Security with information regarding that hate incident,” said Campus Security Director David Patterson.

Patterson said he can’t comment on what methods are being used to identify the perpetrators, but he’s working closely with the complainant.

He said the length of time since the incident doesn’t diminish the chance of identifying the students.

“If people are aware of the situation … we would hope that, given that some time has passed, [students] would feel comfortable coming forth and making a report.”

The Faculty of Applied Science said they weren’t authorized to comment on the investigation.

The Engineering Society isn’t working on the investigation but is willing to help, said EngSoc Vice-President (Academic) Adam Zabrodski.

“It’s very disappointing that students wearing engineering jackets would act in any manner that was disgraceful to the faculty,” Zabrodski said. “There’s nothing to say in defense of the incident. … We [engineering students] do actually need to accept responsibility and take ownership of this, that there is a problem and that it needs to be dealt with.”

Zabrodski said there should be engineering-specific, diversity-related events because engineering students rarely study issues such as diversity in classes.

“[Engineering] is so academic-based, maybe they don’t have the intellectual or emotional vocabulary to properly comprehend the issues of racism.”

He said EngSoc is working to create Frosh Week events next year that promote cultural diversity and awareness of racial issues. He has no specifics yet.

Students with information regarding the incident are encouraged to contact Campus Security at 613-533-6733.

All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s)-in-Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Skip to content