Last night at Colgate University, students huddled together in fear as “a SWAT team, a tank and police units from across the area” roamed across their campus, all in search of an active shooter, The Washington Post reports.

Who was this active shooter?

None other than a black student carrying a glue gun that he was using to work on a class project.

Many of the school’s students were outraged, though unsurprised, that such a thing happened on their campus. One student was haunted by how similar the incident was to the events surrounding the end of Tamir Rice’s life. “I wonder what would have happened, had we not gone to an elite university. Would they have shot him?”

Another student said that the lockdown was simply and sadly par for the course, “What happened tonight was the manifestation of the systematic racism that exists at Colgate.”

And a third said the lockdown was merely the latest example of the “hostilities and aggressions black students feel on this campus every day.”

The lockdown comes amid a debate on campus over a long-standing tradition: each year, the senior class walks down a hill in robes while carrying torches.

That imagery, as you might imagine, is horrifying to many. The ceremony was reportedly modified last year; seniors wore sweaters in place of the robes. This year, is has been suggested that the students wear the traditional robes, but nix the torches for candles.

“In my opinion, the entire thing holds racist imagery,” a Colgate senior told the Post, “I do not plan on participating in it this year.”

Another Colgate student didn’t see any problem with descending on the campus robed with torches in hand, “Colgate students aren’t Nazis or Klansmen for wanting to carry ‘torches’ … any cultural phenomena or tradition can be found to be offensive when examined with the reckless lens of political correctness.”

In statements last night and this morning, the school’s president, Brian Casey, did not mention the larger issues of race plaguing the campus, but did say, “The events of last night have been deeply distressing to the community,” and noted, “Many students expressed their profound dismay that a student of color engaged in academic activity could be identified as a threat to the campus.”

Casey has promised an investigation that will help the school “understand the role that implicit racial bias had in the initial reporting and responses to the events of last night.”

Responding to his president’s words, Colgate senior Patrick Kilkenny said that he hopes the school will learn something from this event “and not just pretend this was some isolated error that can be forgiven and forgotten.”

Don’t we all.

Colgate University

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