Shortly before classes were set to resume at Sterling College in late August, a student of color was walking by the side of the road near the common when a beer can was hurled at him from a passing car, then the passengers shouted out racial and homophobic slurs, according to college president Matthew Derr.
Some 200 members of the college and the surrounding community gathered in a large circle Wednesday, yards from where the student was targeted, for a vigil against racism and intolerance.
“This was not the first incident inspired by prejudice and intolerance that our community has experienced this summer, and it may not be the last,” Derr said, addressing the gathering that was largely white.
A series of events earlier this year had already piqued concerns about racism and homophobia in the area.
In June, the college flew a rainbow flag after a shooting at a nightclub in Orlando. That night, the building the flag was displayed on was egged. Also that night, an American flag hanging outside the college president’s home was torn down and ground into the lawn.
Six months earlier, a couple who posted a Black Lives Matter sign outside their apartment came home to find the sign defiled and a bucket containing a bloodied, dead black cat nearby.
In an interview, Derr said those events were “worrying.” The targeting of the student by the roadside, he said, is “a really concerning incident on any college campus.” The incident is under investigation by police.
In light of the events, the college decided to invite community members to join for dinner and to participate in the vigil, to “say very clearly and emphatically that that’s not representative of our values,” Derr said.
At the vigil, Anne Morse, a member of the college faculty, read a statement on behalf of the student targeted by the side of the road. Morse said that the student, whose identity was not released, asked her to read the comments out of concern for personal safety.
“Now we live in a world where were are forced to question the intentions and motives of all around us because from what we have read, our lives literally depend on it,” the student wrote.
Lt. Walter Smith, station commander at the Vermont State Police Derby barracks, spoke at the vigil.
“We talk about Craftsbury the community, we talk about Sterling College,” Smith said. “But really the community for those of use that grew up in Vermont is Vermont. It’s our extended family.”
“When an incident like this occurs, it really disgusts us that things like that still happen around us,” Smith said.
However, Smith noted that little is known about the incidents. When the police investigated the theft of a Black Lives Matter sign from the college campus, he said, it was discovered that the individuals who took it brought it home and displayed it on their lawn.
“It may not be somebody amongst us that committed these offenses,” Smith said.
