How a President Is Fighting Online Harassment of Minority Students

Bruce Shepard, president of Western Washington University, canceled classes there for a day last week after the student-body president, Belina Seare, was the subject of a threatening post on the anonymous online application Yik Yak. The post about Ms. Seare, who is black, said, "Let’s lynch her." The Yik Yak comment was one of several last week that had the university’s minority students complaining of feeling harassed or endangered. Some of the posts appeared to be reactions to a debate over whether the university’s mascot, the Viking, was sufficiently racially inclusive.