A feminist group at the University of Mary Washington is complaining to the U.S. Education Department that the Virginia institution did not properly respond to threats against the group’s members that were posted on Yik Yak, the anonymous social-media app that has been controversial on many campuses, The Washington Post reports.
One member of the group, Feminists United, was killed recently, and one of her roommates has been charged with the crime, but a lawyer for the group, Lisa Banks, acknowledged that there was no evidence of a connection between the Yik Yak threats and the student’s slaying.
Still, she said the slain student, Grace R. Mann, had been among the group’s members who were cyberstalked and who received death and sexual-assault threats in a flood of more than 700 messages over their activism on the campus. Ms. Banks said university officials had failed to stop the threats.
The university said it had responded to every threat on Yik Yak and had offered “extra security as needed” to students. A spokeswoman also told the Post, “There are First Amendment concerns when you are a state institution.”
“I felt deeply unsafe at many points,” said Paige McKinsey, the outgoing president of the university’s Feminists United group. “I made sure to walk with people. I made sure my apartment door was locked and told people where I was going.”
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