A petitioner on Eastern Washington University’s campus Thursday hurled hate speech and threats toward students before fleeing campus. Police are asking for help identifying the suspect.  

EWU police and EWU leadership both released statements Thursday afternoon regarding “the disturbing incident in front of the Pence Union Building that involved an individual visitor confronting a group of students,” and are asking for anyone with any information to come forward. 

The petitioner, who set up a table outside of the Pence Union Building on Oct. 19th, told students he was actively gathering names, addresses and signatures “to get rid of gender neutral bathrooms.” However, the petition that he was having people sign was Initiative No. 2081, which is a much broader initiative than bathrooms alone.  

“He was yelling at people to sign his petition without giving the whole story,” said Leena Volauka, a student who was sitting at a picnic table near the petitioner. 

I-2081 is also known as the “parental bill of rights.” The full details can be found here. 

The Easterner was at the scene and saw the interaction between the petitioner and student protesters.  

 Volauka didn’t agree with the message the petitioner was sending, calling it “homophobic and ultimately transphobic,” and decided to counter protest.  

“A friend and I tried to play music to drown him out,” Volauka said. “The playlist was filled with P!nk, Lady Gaga, and ‘Nails, Hair, Hips, Heels’ by Todrick Hall. We didn’t want to be offensive, or hateful.” 

Other students who were also outside counter-protesting were Jack Riggs who brought a clown horn to honk, and Chloe O’Neill who wore a trans flag as a cape.  

 “We’re just out here existing.” O’Neill said. “This happens pretty much every quarter. It makes me feel uncomfortable and unsafe on campus. Last spring, there was a guy who was yelling at the students that they were going to hell. It was terrible.” 

 As O’Neill was being interviewed, the petitioner threatened to sue her for “vandalizing the school.” He was referring to words on the sidewalk that O’Neill and Riggs were writing in chalk, such as “Stop! Trans kids matter,” and a large arrow pointing toward the petitioner labeled “Bigot.” 

The insults were then directed at an Easterner reporter. The petitioner started making gestures with his hands and yelling “Make me famous, b— . Make me go viral, b—,” repeatedly. 

The situation continued to escalate as Sydney Thweatt, a student at EWU, went to check out what the petitioner was doing when the man asked her to sign the petition.  

“I asked him what it was for, and he was like ‘to ban co-ed and gender neutral bathrooms in schools,” Thweatt said. “He started going on about how co-ed bathrooms are horrible and we need to get rid of them.” 

Chloe O’Neill then warned her that the petitioner had used a racial slur earlier that day when someone had bumped into his table.  

Thweatt said the petitioner overheard their conversation and started yelling “Yeah I said [racial slur.]” 

Thweatt attempted to de-escalate the situation, but she stated he started “becoming more aggressive.” 

While this was happening, another student named Avante Bishop arrived on the scene. “When he was talking to Avante, he was so calm and collected,” Thweatt said. “He said ‘My bad bro, I didn’t use the ER, so it shouldn’t offend anybody.’ He kept trying to defend himself saying ‘I gangbang’ and ‘my homies let me say it.’

Thweatt said that after Avante left, things became even more heated. She was getting ready to leave as well when the petitioner said to her “run my fade, little [racial slur].” She then clarified, “Which basically means ‘let’s fight.’”  

“Once he said that, I started to get a little rowdy too,” Thweatt confessed. “One, he called me a [racial slur], and two, I’m not going to let anyone put their hands on me.” 

Thweatt said it turned into a screaming match between the two of them. “When he realized I wasn’t going to back down, he started backing up,” she said. “He started saying the same things he said with Avante.” 

Quickly, a crowd formed around them and other people started backing Thweatt up. “They started saying ‘You can’t fight a girl,’ and ‘You can’t say that word,’” she said. 

He started hurling threats at the students, saying he was going to “shoot this b— up.” 

Ka’din Rahman, who arrived towards the end of the altercation, said, “He said he would show back up [Friday] with his homies and guns and shoot people.” 

As the petitioner was leaving the campus, Thweatt claimed, “he pushed my friend Grace over and goes ‘move [racial slur],’ even though my friend is white.” 

 Thweatt was taken into the Pence Union building to calm down as the petitioner left campus. While there, she spoke with a staff member who was able to connect her with the police.  

Following the incident, an email was sent to all EWU students and employees by President Shari McMahan stating that, “The EWU leadership team met this evening to determine a course of action and a meeting will be held with the students as soon as possible to listen to their concerns and discuss how the university will further address this issue.” 

Thweatt hopes that this meeting brings positive change to the campus, “What we want is for them to just listen without them feeling offended,” she said. “We just want them to hear what the problem is, what the problem has been, and what we want for it to get fixed.”