Kayla McKelvey, 25, plead guilty in April 2016 to creating a false public alarm, spreading fear and panic across the campus at her college. Kean University in Union, New Jersey spent $80,000 for extra security and the investigation, following a series of threatening tweets that she deployed from a university library on November 17, 2015.
In addition to the university increasing security, several law enforcement agencies were also alerted, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The threats also prompted a group of black ministers to call for Kean President Dawood Farahi to resign, saying the threats showed that he hadn’t done enough to address racial tension on campus.
McKelvey was the leader of a black student group, Pan-African Student Union, and the school’s homecoming queen in 2014. She was not relying on her good looks and position alone. Apparently her motivation for the outlandish tweets was to increase attendance at a rally on race issues. She told the rally attendees to tell people about the threats.
One message sent to campus police read: “@kupolice I will kill all the blacks tonight, tomorrow and any other day if they go to Kean University.”
Another tweet read: “The cops won’t save you… you’re black.” There was also a tweet on the account that claimed there was a bomb on the campus.
Kean Univeristy is one of the most racially diverse campuses in New Jersey. Last year’s freshman class was 31 per cent white, 30 per cent Hispanic, 20 per cent black, 5 per cent Asian and 14 per cent unknown or other, according to state data.
The Charlotte, North Carolina native been sentenced to 90 days in jail for tweeting anonymous threats against fellow Black college students. A judge declined to admit her into a pretrial intervention program that would have let her avoid jail time.
McKelvey’s sentence on Friday, June 17 in Union County also included five years’ probation.
