(NAME-MCE) Student apologizes for noose in UC San Diego library

[Anselmo Villanueva]

(Student's anonymous letter is second posting below)

Student apologizes for noose in UC San Diego library

An anonymous student -- identified only as a minority woman -- has admitted
to accidentally leaving a noose in a library at the University of California
at San Diego last week, an incident that inflamed already tense race
relations and set off new protests at the institution, the Los Angeles Times
reported. The student said that the noose was "a stupid mistake" and not
intended as a racial comment. The student wrote an apology that ran in the
campus newspaper, whose editor said that a "reliable" source had confirmed
the letter's authenticity. According to the student, she and some friends
had been playing with some rope, making a lasso and a noose, and she took
the rope to the library, left it above a desk and forgot it was there. "As a
minority student who sympathizes with the students that have been affected
by the recent issues on campus, I am distraught to know that I have
unintentionally added to their pain," the student wrote.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ucsd2-2010mar02,0,5953265.story

Student apologizes for noose in UC San Diego library

The campus paper publishes an anonymous letter by a minority student who
calls the incident 'a mindless act and stupid
mistake.'

By Larry Gordon  larry.gordon at latimes.com    March 2, 2010    Los Angeles
Times

The UC San Diego student reportedly responsible for hanging a noose last
week in a campus library issued a public, but anonymous, apology Monday and
said she had no racist motivation.

The noose's discovery set off protests at a school that is already tense
from recent racially charged episodes and triggered condemnations from UC
leaders and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In a letter published Monday on the front page of the UC San Diego student
newspaper, the Guardian, the student wrote that the incident was "a mindless
act and stupid mistake" and was not meant to recall the lynching of blacks.

"As a minority student who sympathizes with the students that have been
affected by the recent issues on campus, I am distraught to know that I have
unintentionally added to their pain," the student wrote. She was suspended
Friday and remains under investigation for a possible hate crime.

The letter is signed "Anonymous UCSD Student" and offers no clues about her
identity or ethnicity.

Sari Thayer, the Guardian's Web editor, said in an interview that the woman
had asked the paper to publish the letter and that "a reliable source"
confirmed its authenticity.

The woman wrote that she and friends had been playing with the rope early
last week, making a lasso and then a noose.

She said that she took it to the library Tuesday, strung it above a desk and
forgot about it. Its discovery Thursday night caused a firestorm on campus,
where tensions were high after a Feb. 15 off-campus party that mocked Black
History Month.

A campus official declined to comment on the letter and said that university
police continue to investigate the incident.

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Campus Paper "The Guardian"  UC San Diego  March 1, 2010

http://www.ucsdguardian.org/feature-on-slider/noose-in-geisel-was-not-intended-as-a-threat/

Noose in Geisel Was Not Intended As a Threat

By Anonymous

I have a story that needs to be heard. I am the girl you’ve read about, the
one who hung the noose in Geisel Library.

Firstly, I’m writing to apologize. I don’t have an excuse for what I did,
and I deeply regret it.

Secondly, I’m writing to hopefully put a little bit of faith back into the
UCSD campus by clarifying that it was not an act of racism. This is what
happened.

I found a small piece of rope on the ground earlier in the day. While I was
hanging out with my friends a bit later, we tried jump-roping with it and
making it into a lasso. My friend then took the rope and tied it into a
noose. I innocently marveled at his ability to tie a noose, without thinking
of any of its connotations or the current racial climate at UCSD. I left
soon after with one of my friends for Geisel to study, still carrying the
rope. After a bit of studying I picked up the rope to play with, and ended
up hanging it by my desk. It was a mindless act and stupid mistake. When I
got up to leave, a couple hours later, I simply forgot about it. This was
Tuesday night. Three days later, on Friday morning, I found out that the
noose had been found and construed as another racist act on campus. I felt
so ashamed and embarrassed, and the first thing I did was call the campus
police and confess. I was hoping to clarify that this was not an act of
racism before the incident got a full reaction from the campus. I gave my
statement around 9 a.m. They thanked me for coming forward and for trying to
clear up the issue. Later, I received a campuswide e-mail saying that I
confessed and had been taken into custody, which simply wasn’t true. One
thing that is true is that I have been suspended. I know what I did was
offensive — regardless of my intentions — I am just trying to say I’m sorry.
As a minority student who sympathizes with the students that have been
affected by the recent issues on campus, I am distraught to know that I have
unintentionally added to their pain.

Editor’s note: the Guardian has verified the author’s authenticity.