A former University of Kentucky student has been permanently banned from campus after hurling slurs at a Black peer in a racist attack caught on video.
Sophia Rosing, 22, will not be allowed to reenroll in the future, University of Kentucky Eli Capilouto said in a statement to the campus community on Wednesday. The decision comes after Ms Rosing was filmed hurling racist slurs at a student worker who denied her entry to a residence hall when she failed to show her ID.
“We stand by our students who were targeted by this unacceptable hostility and violence,” Mr Capilouto’s statement read. “As a community working wholeheartedly to prevent racist violence, we also must be committed to holding people accountable for their actions.”
The university added that an investigation is ongoing and that further charges could be forthcoming based on the results.
Ms Rosing, who faces charges of public intoxication, assault on a police officer and disorderly conduct, had been banned from campus while an investigation into the incident was pending. The brazen attack, in which Ms Rosing tells the student, “you’re a ni**** and a bi***,” has since gone viral.
Before the latest statement, students had expressed outrage that Ms Rosing was not immediately expelled for the racist attack. Her attorney, Fred Peters, told NBC that Ms Rosing planned to withdraw from the university and would be entering rehab, where she plans to participate in a “sensitivity programme to help her through this situation.”
“She is going to withdraw from the university today or tomorrow,” Mr Peters told the outlet on Tuesday. “She’s a very, very embarrassed and humiliated young lady.”
According to local news station WKYT, Ms Rosing was a business and marketing major at the university.
It is unclear whether she was expelled before withdrawing from the university. The Independent has reached out to the University of Kentucky for comment.
Ms Rosing was also reportedly fired from her position as a brand ambassador at the Dillard’s department store. Dillard’s official Twitter account replied to questions about Ms Rosing’s ties with the company, saying that, “Dillard’s does not condone this behavior [and] her relationship with Dillard’s has been terminated immediately”.
After the now-viral incident, Ms Rosing was booked into the Fayette County Jail. She posted a $10,000 bond and was released on Monday.
She has pleaded not guilty to her charges and as part of her bail requirements, she was from contacting Ms Spring and drinking alcohol.
“Could you stop?” Kylah Spring asks in the now-viral clip that she captioned, “what I had to deal with at work”. Ms Spring was working an overnight shift on campus, per NBC.
“Nope,” Ms Rosing responded after being asked to stop by the Black student. “You’re a n***** and you’re a b****,” said Ms Rosing, a racial slur that the arrest citation claims she would go on to use “200 times” over the course of the arrest.
“I do not get paid enough for this,” says the victim, as she attempts to fight off the 22-year-old’s attempts to strike her.
The senior at the Kentucky school reportedly told arresting officers as she was being taken to the Fayette County Detention Center shortly after the early morning call was placed that she has “lots of money” and gets “special treatment”, according to the arrest citation, Fox 19 reported.
After attempting to get the intoxicated student to sit in a chair, the arrest citation notes that she then kicked the arresting officer and “bit their hand”.
On Monday, Ms Rosing pleaded not guilty to all of the charges brought against her as she appeared via video link to her first court appearance, WKYT reported.
In reviewing the footage of the video that appears to show the assault, Mr Capilouto had previously defended the victim.
“The video images I have seen do not honor our responsibilities to each other. They reflect violence, which is never acceptable, and a denial of the humanity of members of our community. They do not reflect civil discourse. They are deeply antithetical to what we are and what we always want to be as a community,” the university’s president said.
