LSU says admitted student who posted racist rant on social media won’t be enrolled

Louisiana State University (LSU) said Monday that an admitted student seen making a racist rant on social media would not be enrolled at the school in the fall.

A clip shared on Twitter earlier this month shows Drew Dollar, a confirmed student from West Monroe, La., saying, “I hate n—–s,” The Advocate reported.

The video went viral when Skai Jackson, an actress and author, shared it on social media and urged her followers to reach out to LSU.

“Someone like him shouldn’t be able to attend college,” Jackson wrote.

Dollar’s social media accounts appear to be on private or deleted.

LSU spokesman Ernie Ballard told the Baton Rouge newspaper that the school will not be making a comment beyond the tweet, citing privacy protections for student discipline under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. 

The school faced backlash over its initial response to the video, the outlet noted.

LSU’s official account initially responded to Jackson’s video stating: “To be clear, we at LSU condemn hate and bigotry in any form, including racially incendiary remarks. As a state university, however, we are subject to constitutional limitation on our ability to take action in response to free speech.” 

The school in recent weeks had made efforts to engage the campus’s black community amid international protests against police brutality and racial inequality following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody.

Interim President Thomas Galligan released a platform of actions the school pledged to take in order to address concerns of black student leaders, which included making “timely statements condemning racism and injustice and implement policies clearly outlining the University’s standard of disapproval.”

Jackson has been using her platform to call out racist incidents involving students affiliated with the U.S. Air Force Academy, the University of South Carolina and Yale University, among others.

The Disney Channel star, known for her role on “Jessie,” recently highlighted a racist post from a prospective student at the University of Florida (UF), sharing a post from a high school student in Cape Coral who wrote about being frustrated with two black girls, The Orlando Sentinel reported last week.

“I really try so hard not to be a racist person, but i most definitely am, there’s no denying it & it gets the best of me sometimes,” the student’s post read. The “two black girls sitting behind me won’t shut the [expletive] up & i want to punch them because they are so [expletive] retarded, anyone within the proximity of them has the possibility of losing brain cells. they’re most definitely crackwhores & people like them do nothing for society, i swear.”

UF tweeted that the prospective student “who posted racist comments in social media will not be joining the University of Florida community this fall.”

Both UF and LSU were vague in their statements, making it unclear if they denied admission or if the students decided on their own not to attend the universities.

The outlets reported that if the state-sponsored schools withdrew their admittance, the students could theoretically sue, claiming violations of their First Amendment rights.