CNN
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The putting of an antisemitic drawing in a dormitory at Stanford College is being investigated by campus police as a hate crime, officers mentioned.
The drawing, which included “a number of swastikas and a picture modified to resemble Adolf Hitler,” was found on a whiteboard connected to a Jewish pupil’s dorm room door Friday, the college mentioned in a assertion.
“This incident is being investigated by the Division of Public Security as a criminal offense motivated by hate. Purposely intimidating and threatening individuals primarily based on protected identities is antithetical to Stanford’s values,” the assertion mentioned. Antisemitism “and different acts of hate and intolerance are unacceptable on this campus.”
Because of the prison investigation, the drawing isn’t thought of protected speech and the particular person or individuals accountable might face authorized or disciplinary motion, the college mentioned.
The drawing was found little greater than per week after two different cases of antisemitic and racist vandalism on campus.
A number of swastikas, the N-word and the letters “KKK” that had been scratched right into a steel panel in a males’s rest room within the Historical past Nook of the Important Quad had been found on February 28, a earlier assertion from the varsity mentioned.
And a swastika with “KKK” surrounding it was carved into the wall of a males’s rest room stall in Wallenberg Corridor on March 3, the assertion mentioned.
The earlier incidents “don’t appear to be associated” to the drawing within the dormitory, the college mentioned.
The investigations at Stanford come amid an increase in antisemitic incidents throughout the nation, together with the arrest of a person earlier this yr in close by San Francisco after he allegedly fired a duplicate gun a number of occasions inside a synagogue and the shootings of two Jewish males as they had been leaving synagogues in Los Angeles.
These incidents had been reported towards a backdrop of current incendiary antisemitic statements, together with tweets from Kanye West, indicators over a serious Los Angeles bridge and messages projected on buildings in Florida.
Greater than 850 incidents of antisemitic propaganda had been recorded final yr nationwide, greater than doubling the 352 incidents in 2021, based on the Anti-Defamation League Heart on Extremism. That improve comes amid a 38% improve in White supremacist propaganda efforts within the US final yr in comparison with 2021, the middle mentioned, together with the distribution of racist, antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ+ materials.
The Stanford dorm the place the drawing was found will maintain a gathering Tuesday to “focus on group affect and subsequent steps for addressing the hurt,” the college mentioned.
The college’s Workplace for Spiritual and Religious Life and Hillel are additionally accessible as assist programs for college kids, the assertion mentioned.