Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Black Harvard student: Racism part of campus ban - washingtonpost.com

Black Harvard student: Racism part of campus ban - washingtonpost.com: BOSTON -- A black Harvard University senior who lives in the dorm where a campus visitor was fatally shot says school officials ordered her out of the building and told her she could not graduate, singling her out because of her race.

Chanequa Campbell, of New York, is a friend of the shooting suspect's girlfriend, another Harvard student, but has no connection to the suspect or the victim, her attorney, Jeffrey Karp, told The Associated Press.

She was ordered off campus Friday with little notice and without being told why, Karp said. She was allowed to gather only a few personal belongings from her room after receiving a no-trespassing order, he said.

'There is no citation to the student code, no citation to any law, no citation to any facts,' he said.

Harvard spokesman Robert Mitchell said in a statement that the school does not comment on an individual student's status.

Campbell, a sociology major, lived in the dorm where 21-year-old Justin Cosby, a former Salem State College student, was killed May 18 in what authorities say was a drug-related robbery attempt. Jabrai Jordan Copney, a 20-year-old songwriter from New York City, has been charged with murder.

No one else has been charged in the case, but authorities are looking for two other men they think were involved in the confrontation.