Authorities are investigating a potential hate crime at Grand Valley State University after a minority student group’s meeting was interrupted with racist language and images.
The incident took place Thursday night during an online meeting with student organization Black Male Scholars.
Grand Valley State University is reporting that someone from outside of the group hacked into the zoom meeting and posted racist materials that were demeaning towards African-American males.
Jesse Bernal is the vice president for Inclusion and Equity and executive associate for presidential initiatives at GVSU.
“The University’s condemnation for the racist and hateful invasion of our Black Males Scholars virtual gathering, and our care and concern for all those who had to witness the deplorable act, and our entire black community is our top priority right now,” Bernal said.
The University says its IT department was able to turn over suspect leads to police, and investigators are pursuing this as a criminal case.
Commonly called Zoom Bombing,— is a relatively new form of cyberbullying, where hackers will crash a meeting and post racist, pornographic or other shocking materials on purpose.