EXCLUSIVE: Barnard Student Speaks Out, Blames 'Diversity' Push for Tessa Majors' Death
Speaking exclusively with National File, a student at Barnard College in Manhattan blasted the school, blaming it for the brutal December murder of freshman Tessa Majors.
National File has independently confirmed that Alex (a pseudonym used to protect the identity of the student, who is afraid of retribution from liberal classmates, professors, and staff) is currently enrolled at the private women’s liberal arts college, which has a partnership with Columbia University.
“Many years ago, Columbia/Barnard would warn students not to go to Morningside Park (where the murder occurred), because it is a hellhole ridden with violent crime,” Alex told National File.
“Now, they talk about how wonderful Morningside Park is because it is ‘diverse,'” she continued. “What these white liberals do not understand is that these ‘diverse’ people hate them, they hate that they go to Columbia, they hate that they are white, and they hate that they are encroaching on their territory, and they want them dead. It is sickening that the school would rather pander to minorities and push a political agenda than keeping their students safe. They should call her death what it is – a brutal murder by three black teens.”
Tessa Majors was stabbed to death on the evening of December 11 in Harlem’s Morningside Park, located close to the Barnard campus.
According to a criminal complaint, the bloodied teen managed to stagger up a set of stairs after the attack, before falling to the ground and losing consciousness near the 116th Street security booth on Barnard’s Campus.
A Barnard College Public Safety (BCPS) guard reportedly found Majors and called the police.
Ziarr Davis, 13, was charged with second-degree murder and first-degree robbery in Majors’ death. Rashaun Weaver and Luchiano Lewis, both 14, have also been charged with multiple counts of murder and robbery.
That latter pair will face trial as adults, and could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.
But Alex contests that there’s more to the story of Majors’ murder, and that much of the blame should be placed on Barnard.
Last April, a black Columbia University student was detained by BCPS after arriving on campus late at night, and failing to provide identification. Video of that incident shows the student being pinned down by security until he provided the identification for which they asked.
In response, Barnard hired an independent group, T&M Resources, to investigate the incident after an enraged student body made claims of “racism” against the security guards, and the story received national media attention.
T&M produced a report with its findings.
“Barnard College has a policy that all individuals who enter the campus after 11:00 p.m. are required to display identification to the BCPS officer at the main gate,” the report said. “The officer tried to get the student’s attention repeatedly to no effect.”
The report then concluded that “T&M did not find evidence to support a determination that race was a factor in the confrontation between BCPS and the Columbia University student.”
But after the report was released, Barnard’s president Sian Leah Beilock sent a contradictory letter to students.
The investigators reported on community perceptions of racial bias. They also cited flawed policies and training that may lead to biased enforcement. Without the very best in training, each officer responds to events differently and — as noted in the report — creates a ‘perception, if not a reality, of disparate treatment of individuals with whom [Public Safety] interacts on campus.’ These are systemic failures that affect everyone involved: the officers and the community members they interact with.
In the same letter, Beilock announced a change in BCPS leadership, and tapped a former “Equity Compliance Officer” from the University of Dayton for the role:
While we conduct a national search for a new Executive Director of Public Safety and Emergency Management, I am grateful to Amy Zavadil, who will serve in this role on an interim basis. Ms. Zavadil holds a Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Supervision and most recently served as University of Dayton’s Equity Compliance Officer. She knows the Barnard community, having served as Associate Dean for Equity from 2011 to 2017. As Interim Executive Director, Ms. Zavadil will help us make necessary improvements to the Public Safety Department, address important issues related to culture and inclusion, and implement the recommendations of the report. One recommendation, training in de-escalation tactics for all current and incoming Public Safety personnel, began this summer.
Alex told National File that she believes the fallout from the April Columbia University student’s interaction with BCPS led the school to relax its public safety efforts at the behest of the social justice brigade.
“I was not an eyewitness to [the April incident], but I learned about what happened from campus chatter and official school correspondence,” Alex said. “The event also made the nightly news. The most painful part of this story is that as a result of this event, campus security was removed in many places. Students contacted administrators that they ‘did not feel safe,’ that the public safety force were a bunch of ‘racist white men,’ and that they did not want public safety there.”
A Barnard spokeswoman denied Alex’s claim.
“Barnard College Public Safety officers remained on duty, and services are at the same levels that they have always been,” Associate Director for Media Relations Alli Cooke told National File.
But there’s other evidence to suggest that Barnard was tepid about campus security after the April incident, specifically in warning students about the dangers of Morningside Park, which had the most robberies of any New York City park in 2019 through September.
Freshman Sarah Kopyto told Gothamist that during her first-year orientation, security in Morningside Park was not discussed. That orientation would have taken place months after the April incident.
“There was a security orientation, but there wasn’t anything about that park specifically,” she said.
Two Columbia University students told Gothamist the same thing.
It’s quite possible that in the name of “diversity” and “inclusion,” and for fear of the social justice mob, Majors was not adequately warned by Barnard of dangers that exist in the school’s immediate vicinity.
What is absolutely clear from Alex’s account is that it’s not acceptable to question the left’s “tolerance” doctrine, or to openly discuss any of this on campus.
“I have never experienced such violent, angry, and evil people before,” she told National File.
“If it got out that I was even right-leaning, my future at the school would be ruined.”
Follow Pete D’Abrosca on Twitter: @pdabrosca
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