Wittenberg College, a Division III college situated in Springfield, Ohio, has canceled all athletic occasions via Sunday due to safety considerations on campus, it stated Tuesday. The college didn’t specify the considerations however stated the threats had been “ongoing.”
The college additionally introduced all courses will likely be distant for the rest of the week.
On Saturday, Wittenberg canceled all college occasions for Sunday, together with all scheduled athletic occasions. After reviewing new threats Monday, the varsity determined to proceed with the precautions as it really works with legislation enforcement.
“After receiving new threats on Monday, Sept. 16, and within the context of ongoing threats of violence on our campus and within the Springfield group, Wittenberg will go absolutely distant for the remainder of the week (Monday, Sept. 16-Sunday, Sept. 22). The College is taking every menace severely, and Wittenberg Police are working carefully with different legislation enforcement businesses to totally examine any and all threats made towards our campus, staff, and college students,” the varsity stated in an announcement.
Safety considerations started final week after the presidential debate, when former President Donald Trump repeated a baseless rumor that Haitian immigrants in Springfield kidnapped and ate family pets.
On Monday, two elementary colleges had been evacuated due to bomb threats. The New York Instances reported there have been 33 bomb threats concentrating on metropolis colleges since Trump’s accusations. Springfield Metropolis Corridor and two hospitals have additionally been threatened, per The Instances.
On Monday, DeWine stated he was sending state police to town to reassure Springfield residents that they had been secure.
“We should take each menace severely, however kids need to be in class, and fogeys need to know that their children are secure,” the governor stated. “The added safety will assist ease a number of the fears attributable to these hoaxes.”
Wittenberg had a number of groups slated to compete in occasions between Tuesday and Sunday, together with males’s and girls’s soccer, males’s and girls’s cross nation, males’s tennis, subject hockey, ladies’s volleyball, soccer and males’s and girls’s golf.
“We acknowledge that this can be disruptive to the beforehand deliberate athletic contests and all individuals, however we ask for understanding throughout this troublesome time for our College and our prolonged group of Springfield,” a spokesperson for Wittenberg Athletics stated in an announcement launched to The Athletic later Tuesday.
Sadly, all Wittenberg intercollegiate athletics occasions via Sunday, Sept. 22, have been canceled on account of ongoing safety considerations on campus.
— Wittenberg Athletics (@WittAthletics) September 17, 2024
Because of the massive variety of college students selecting to go dwelling for his or her distant classwork, the athletic workers at Wittenberg stated they’ll work with pupil athletes to create particular person coaching plans till sports activities are cleared for return.
Moreover, the varsity will try and reschedule any video games missed on account of safety considerations.
“Our teaching workers can be at present researching different alternatives to interchange the video games Wittenberg will miss this week, together with various enjoying choices and even scrimmages,” per the assertion.
For Wittenberg’s ladies’s cross nation workforce, the cancellations will see the back-to-back convention champions miss the All-Ohio Championship occasions scheduled for Friday.
(Picture: Luke Sharrett / Getty Photographs)
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