Massachusetts college fires employee behind spate of incidents targeting Jewish, Black students

For several weeks, a residence hall at the small liberal arts school was vandalized with antisemitic symbols including swastikas and other hate messages.

By Dion J. Pierre, The Algemeiner

Curry College in Milton, Massachusetts, has identified and fired an employee responsible for a string of bias incidents that stoked panic across the campus in February, the Currier Times campus paper reported.

For several weeks, a residence hall at the small liberal arts school was vandalized with antisemitic symbols and other messages of hate speech, including a swastika that was graffitied in a laundry room. Later, a message threatening Black students and specifying February 22 as the date of a possible event was discovered, prompting President Kenneth Quigley to temporarily suspend in-person classes and offer a $10,000 reward for any information related to the case.

In an email to the Curry community on Wednesday, President Quigley revealed that a joint investigation by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force and local police determined that the culprit was a college employee, noting that, per school rules, his identity could not be disclosed.

“The outcome of our independent investigation has resulted in an employee being terminated and removed from our community,” Quigley said, according to the Currier Times. “We recognize and regret the impact these bias acts have had on our students, families, faculty, and staff throughout the spring semester and hope this will allow us to continue moving forward.”

“It is our hope that this will bring some closure to the series of events we all suffered through,” he continued.

According to the Boston Globe, law enforcement has not yet charged the now former employee with a crime.

Antisemitismcollege campusesHate crimeMassachusetts