USA Students upset over possible noose, tweet

MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG)- Students are upset over a possible noose hanging outside of a dining hall at the University of South Alabama, then a tweet that followed. Now, a student has been suspended and banned from campus and an Aramark employee, USA's food service vendor, has been fired following the investigation. 

A current USA student sent the picture to News 5. 

A picture, sent to News 5 but a current student, was taken outside of the dining hall, showing what some students believe is a noose hanging in a tree along with a bicycle hanging by a rope. The caption reads, "Yea let's not start this ?"

It was a picture taken on the smartphone app "SnapChat" and appeared to have been screenshot several times by students upset over the possible nooses.  

Another comment reads, "There's a whole bike and noose in the tree outside the cafe????"

In response to the circulating photo, News 5 received a screen grab of a tweet by a Twitter account believed to be run by the school with the handle, "@usadining."

The tweet said, "The rope outside the caf last night was just a sign that our food is KILLER! Come get some fried chicken and tell us any different! #friedchickenwednesday."

The screenshot shows it was tweeted at 11:21 am Wednesday. 

Another Twitter user replied to the tweet saying, "delete this now. Are you kidding me?" To which "@usadining" replied, "it's been checked out by usapd, and we trust them 100." 

We asked if the Twitter handle, "@usadining" is run by the school and it said no comment. 

USA is aware of the post from the USA Dining account. That account is managed by an employee of Aramark, a vendor. USA deeply regrets the offensive post and immediately contacted Aramark to address the situation. The post has been removed.

— U of South Alabama (@UofSouthAlabama) September 26, 2018

At around 1:30 pm, the school started responding to the tweet saying, "USA is aware of the post from the USA Dining account. That account is managed by an employee of Aramark, a vendor. USA deeply regrets the offensive post and immediately contacted Aramark to address the situation. The post has been removed."

The university released a statement around 2:30 pm in response to the investigation saying,

"University of South Alabama police received an anonymous tip last night of a noose and a bicycle hanging in a tree in front of the campus dining hall. When officers arrived, they observed a rope and a bicycle hanging in a small tree. Although the photo sent to USAPD appeared to show a noose, there was no noose at the time officers responded to the scene. According to USAPD, it appeared to officers the rope had held up a banner that was no longer there. USAPD checked the serial number of the bicycle and determined it had not been reported stolen. It was then placed in a bike rack nearby. Upon further investigation today, USAPD has learned that the same tree held a “sheet sign” the day before. Sheet signs are used throughout the USA campus to advertise upcoming major events, such as Homecoming or recreational activities."

President Tony Waldrop sent another release at 6 pm in response to the events, 

"A University of South Alabama student has been interimly suspended and banned from campus, pending a formal hearing, after confessing to an incident discovered last night outside the campus dining hall. USA Police have determined the student acted alone in hanging a bicycle and two nooses in a tree. 
There was also an offensive tweet regarding that situation that was posted earlier on the USA Dining Twitter account, which is managed by Aramark, USA’s food service vendor. The Aramark employee who posted the offending tweet is no longer employed by that company.
I want to thank the University community for providing information that enabled the USA Police Department to bring this unfortunate matter to a close. Students are encouraged to contact USA’s Counseling and Testing Services should they wish to discuss this incident further with licensed counselors. Counseling services are provided at no charge. Students can call 460-7051 to schedule an appointment." 

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