Olivet Nazarene University TPUSA president receives death threat, forced to take classes online
The president of TPUSA at ONU received an anonymous threat on Instagram, in which the user promised to slit his throat in his sleep.
The chapter’s president and vice president were sent home for safety concerns and were allowed to finish the remainder of the semester online as police investigated the threat.
Two leaders of a conservative student group were forced to leave campus after an anonymous individual threatened to kill its president.
Jacob York, president of Turning Point USA at Olivet Nazarene University, received an anonymous threat on Instagram that read “I’m gonna find you in Chapman and slit your throat in your sleep if you keep posting racist s*** like that please post your God and savior Charlie Kirk one more time.”
York told The College Fix that he received other threats as well, including a follow-up message from the same account stating the specific day the user planned to carry out the attack.
The school appeared to validate this allegation, telling Fox News Digital that it “can confirm that a student received anonymous digital messages and images (memes) that have been inferred as a serious threat to this individual.”
Despite the chapter not being officially recognized and operating in an off-campus capacity, the school took swift action, offering “academic accommodations” to allow York and chapter vice president Mara Hudson to leave campus and finish the remainder of the semester online.
”As with any circumstance where a student feels threatened, accommodations including moving rooms, escorts, hybrid-study accommodations, additional security for doors and locks, increased patrols with the local police department and campus public safety team, as well as connection with campus counseling services have been offered and/or implemented,” a school official said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
University President Gregg Chenoweth stated that he is personally working to address the matter, and that local law enforcement has classified the investigation as “urgent.”
A school official confirmed in an email to the campus community that the case is being investigated by the university’s Department of Public Safety and the Bourbonnais Police Department, saying, “At no time is this sort of behavior acceptable in our society and certainly not at Olivet, and it will be handled accordingly.”
The email also clarified that the threats were “directed toward specific members of our campus community” and that “[t]here is no known threat to the campus community at large, and added that local police would provide “additional patrols on and around our campus properties.”
In an emailed statement to Campus Reform, the university states “There have been several inquiries about why Olivet has not formally recognized a Turning Point USA Chapter on campus, even while we permit students associated with that organization to informally meet on campus and acknowledge their right to operate as a Chapter off campus.”
”The University is fulfilling a decades-long practice not to fund or promote activities or Clubs associated with a political party. TPUSA describes itself as non-partisan and often represents moral interests that align with Olivet (e.g. pro-life, heterosexual marriage, religious liberty), but as recent as this week at America Fest they also call members to activism which will sustain a majority Republican House and Republican President.”
This is not the first time that TPUSA campus leaders have been threatened. Campus Reform previously reported that the University of Minnesota Duluth’s chapter received multiple death threats, including one in which the president of the Young Democratic Socialists of America chapter stated his desire to line up the TPUSA members against a wall and shoot them.
Olivet Nazarene University, the school’s TPUSA chapter, and Jacob York have been contacted for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
