Students involved in a racially charged Election Day riot at a Virginia college have been punished, according to a statement released to the Associated Press. One student has been expelled while three others have been disciplined for their role in the incident at Hampden-Sydney College, a small all-male undergraduate institution in central Virginia.
When news of the election’s outcome struck, a group of approximately 40 outraged students gathered outside of the college’s Minority Student Union. According to the Associated Press, the mob proceeded to yell racial slurs, throw bottles and set off fireworks outside the building in protest of President Barack Obama’s re-election.
Black students make up less than 10 percent of the school’s 1,100 member student body, which is led by college president Chris Howard, the first African-American to hold the position. Howard described the outburst as a “harmful, senseless episode” in an email sent to parents.
“There were a lot more at that town hall meeting denouncing what happened than the knuckleheads who were misbehaving terribly that night,” President Howard said in an interview the AP shortly after the incident.
The four students disciplined were found guilty of violating the school’s code of conduct by a student court according to a statement released to the Associated Press by Hampden-Sydney spokesman Thomas H. Shomo. Hampden-Sydney College policy prevents the names of the students from being released.
Between 25 and 100 hours of community service were given to each of the three students who were not expelled, and they have been placed on probation.
