SPOKANE, Wash. — Gonzaga University is holding a virtual Town Hall on Monday night after a Zoom meeting of the school's Black Student Union in November was targeted by people shouting racist and homophobic slurs.
A video shared with KREM 2 showed an unknown user with their camera off joining the Zoom call during the meeting on Sunday, Nov. 8. Several voices can be heard shouting slurs at Black Student Union members.
The Spokane Police Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are investigating the incident with help from Gonzaga's Information Technology Services department and Campus Security and Public Safety.
The perpetrators of the attack have not yet been determined, according to the most recent update from Gonzaga on Nov. 25.
The virtual Town Hall meeting from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Monday will address the incident, along with "broader issues of race, diversity and inclusion on campus," according to Gonzaga.
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More than 13,000 people have signed a petition created after the "Zoom-bomb" attack asking Gonzaga University to take "immediate legal action against hate speech on campus." Black Student Union members also called on the university to take "tangible actions" following the racist incident.
The Change.org petition started by a group on Gonzaga's campus called United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) demands that the university conduct an "exhaustive search to find the individuals responsible for the hate crime committed" against the Black Student Union and "immediately expunge" them from the community. It also calls on the university to "take action to combat hate speech and create an active anti-racist campus."
Spokane City Council members and Gonzaga University administrators met with members of the Black Student Union after the attack.
In a statement released in late November, Councilmembers Betsy Wilkerson, Michael Cathcart and Kate Burke called for a resolution in “condemning white supremacy and the spread of racial divisiveness.”
"The students can't make that kind of systemic change at Gonzaga, or any other organization, because they're not operating from a position of power," said Wilkerson, who is a Black woman. "They have a voice, but not a position of power."
