After the recent arrest of Justin James Hale, questions regarding his presence on campus as well as lack of action from university administration circulate amongst students.

The 26-year old was arrested October 23 and is currently being tried by the Spokane County Superior Court with charges including threats to bomb or injure property, bomb threats, and disorderly conduct. 

As questions about the reasoning for Hale’s campus presence continue to spread, The Easterner spoke with Associate Professor of Biostatistics at Eastern Washington University Dr. Krisztian Magori who has taken notice of the other petitioners that have visited the campus in the past. 

“I mostly noticed the initiative about removing the carbon tax,” said Migori, “because I care about climate change and the environment, but they do have the Initiative 2081.”

I-2081 was the primary initiative Hale was gathering signatures for when the altercation took place. 

Without knowing for certain who Hale worked for, Magori is worried about another incident occurring, “I do hope that after this incident, we will not have paid signature-collectors from the same group come to campus, given what happened.”

Director of Communications & Media Relations at Eastern Washington University Dave Meany could not provide any further details regarding the group Hale was associated with but states that he believes that this is a rare occurrence with petitioners on campus. 

“Up until now I don’t think we’ve had problems with petition gatherers,” said Meany. “Over the years campus police have always had a presence when the university anticipates a visiting group might create a possible volatile issue.”

When initially speaking with The Easterner, Sydney Thweatt, one of the victims of Hale’s hate speech and threats, spoke about possibly meeting with university administration, “We have a meeting coming up [October 23] and me and everyone who was involved are going to talk about it, and we’re going to plan out what action we want.” 

When The Easterner followed up with Thweatt on November 3, she told reporters that the scheduled meeting never happened. Thweatt said she feels that there has not been any response at all from leadership to address the students’ concerns, “At this point, I know what I would like to happen is just not going to happen.”

Thweatt, who received an email from Eastern Washington University leadership, said “they said they were going to talk to me and nothing happened.”