An Oberlin student has admitted to printing about 1,000 anti-Islam fliers and posting racist cards around the campus earlier this year. The student told the campus security officials that it was all just a joke and it was done to provoke reactions.
Oberlin city police report said that apart from cards and fliers, the student also acknowledged exhibiting a large Nazi flag, which was also meant to be taken as a joke. He also pasted the college president's face on a picture of Adolf Hitler.
The student was arrested after he was seen posting anti-Islam fliers in the college's Science Center Feb. 27. Although he accepted the wrongdoings that occurred earlier this year, he denied responsibility for other earlier racist postings.
The student's name has been blacked out in police documents.
The police declined to file charges against the student as there was no violation of laws but said that the student will face strict disciplinary action.
"You had fliers with threats of violence and hate speech and rape that are being posted on doors and in hallways and on mailboxes," said Scott Wargo Oberlin College spokesman. "It didn't make it less real for those who had to endure it firsthand, and creating an atmosphere where people are afraid and feel threatened - it isn't a joke."
Several racial and anti-Semitic incidents were witnessed over the winter that led to chaos at the historically liberal Ohio University, one of the nation's first universities to welcome blacks. Incidents included vandalizing of the Black History Month posters, placing of 'whites only' sign above a water fountain, a swastika drawn on a window and someone allegedly wore a Ku Klux Klan-type hooded robe on campus.
