It was a story too good to check. The day after some 200 activist students at Vanderbilt University marched into the administration building to deliver their demands for more diversity and inclusivity to the school’s chancellor, the reactionary forces on campus struck back in the most disgusting way possible.
The school’s police department, reported the Vanderbilt Hustler, was “responding to a call reporting a bag of feces that was left at the front door of the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center” sometime Tuesday. The Hustler quotes the center’s director, Frank Dobson, who urged caution on assigning blame. “There was indeed feces left on the porch. However, Vanderbilt police is investigating the matter and do not wish to label the incident until I get further evidence,” said Dobson.
But the student activist group behind Monday’s protest had a different initial reaction on its Facebook page, as the Hustler noted in its original story posted at 9:22 pm Tuesday:
It went on to underscore the BCC’s historical importance as a safe haven for the campus’ African American students, noting, “The violation of a place that in many ways is the sole home for many Black students is deplorable.”
“As many of us sit in grief, recognize that these types actions are what we speak of when we note the reality of exclusion and isolation of students of color and specifically Black students on our campus,” the statement said.
The act as described by the group was reminiscent of the infamous swastika painted on a bathroom wall with human feces at the University of Missouri. It seemed no campus was safe.
The Hidden Dores’s original Facebook post now appears to have been deleted. Why? It turns out there was more to the story than racism at Vanderbilt.
In an 11:34 pm update to the story, the Hustler reported the police department had concluded its investigation and found “no criminal or malicious intent” behind the bag of feces. “The investigation found the bag was inadvertently left by an individual with a service dog who was authorized to be in the building who could not find a trash can near the entrance and did not wish to take the bag inside,” read a university statement.
The student who left her dog’s bag later identified herself and spoke with the Hustler:
According to Zundel, this is the typical protocol for handling service dog feces when a garbage can cannot be found.
“The one thing that guide dog school trains every student to do is that if they don’t know where the garbage can is, you still always pick it up and put it in the bag, that way no one steps in it,” Zundel said. “But then you leave it outside of a building. That way someone else who sees a garbage can put it in there.”
Zundel said that VUPD contacted her and asked if she had a service dog accompanying her on the premises, and if the dog had left behind some fecal matter. She believed VUPD reached out to her after seeing camera footage of her and her dog.
The original Hidden Dores Facebook post condemning the “vile” retaliatory act appears to have been deleted. In its place is a new statement. “It has recently come to our attention that we were absolutely misinformed about a situation that happened this morning at Vanderbilt’s Black Cultural Center, where a black bag filled with fecal matter was left at the front doorstep of the place that feels most like home to many Black students on campus. We have discovered that the fecal matter was not left at the BCC by a vindictive member of this community,” reads the new post.
Here’s more:
In 2015, this is what campus hysteria looks like.
