After a random attack on Howard University students by a mob of teenagers made the rounds on social media over the weekend, the HBCU announced a plan to attack the safety issues that led to this mass assault.
According to WTOP, students were chased around residence halls as a group of teenage boys charged at them and fought them. This group is known to stir up trouble around Washington, D.C. Still, their ability to infiltrate the campus and harm several students has the Howard community, including parents, faculty, and administration, very concerned.
The lack of action from on-duty Howard security personnel was a major issue, as a student who witnessed the incident posted to TikTok, saying that her classmate was “left to die” while security looked the other way.
@thesocialitechannel #greenscreen Four Howard university students were attacked by over 50 locals early Monday morning and the University is not doing as much as the students would like to see and respond to this incident.##fyp##trending##howarduniversity##hu25##hu26 ♬ original sound – thesocialitechannel
At a town hall hosted by university administrators to address the matter, it was revealed that they had been tracking this teen “fight club” in case their rising threat ever made its way to Howard.
“We’ve been tracking these juveniles, not only on
our campus, but also throughout the District as well, over the summertime,” stated Howard University’s COO and EVP, Dr. Tashni-Ann Dubroy. “They’re part of a fight club. They go to restaurants to instigate fights. And the reason why it escalated so quickly and became viral is because that’s part of their strategy. That’s part of what they do.”To remedy the security issues
, Howard’s multimillion-dollar plan is to install over 1,000 security cameras alongside new identification measures such as smart-card readers to ensure only authorized individuals can enter university buildings.The school is introducing its freshman class to campus in a days-long event called “Bison Week” and hopes to ensure to its newest students that this upcoming year will be the safest yet.
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