Oxford student banned from future events for wearing a KKK costume

A student at Oxford University has been banned from future events after wearing a KKK hood to a party.

This comes over six months after the event, which took place in December 2016, with Christ Church College being criticised for their slow response. The dean of Christ Church has said that the student must also apologise in writing.

An email was sent out by the college on Wednesday, which describes it as “a deeply regrettable incident in which an offensive item of clothing was worn at a college bop.”

The statement continues to say: “We wish to affirm in the strongest possible terms that Christ Church is firmly committed to equality, diversity and respect, and we will absolutely not accept any breaches of such toleration.”

Complaints were made at the time of the event. The student in question has told Oxford university’s Cherwell newspaper: “The costume was intended as a satirical response to the theme ‘2016’. It was meant as a comment on Donald Trump’s possible connections to KKK members, after the US election.
I did not intend to offend anyone and removed the costume within two minutes of arriving after realising the inappropriateness of it.”

Christ Church have come under criticism for their slow response, with one undergraduate anonymously saying: “Numerous students put forth the complaint. [Christ Church are] reluctant to deal with controversy, they would much rather push things under the rug.

They have a track record of just leaving things rather than standing up and doing something. Also I think the atmosphere at Christ Church facilitates that sort of behaviour, in that it’s an environment where anyone thinks they can say or do anything because of ‘free speech’ and shock value.”

Dean of Christ Church, the Very Reverend Professor Martyn Percy, has said that the student’s behaviour at the party was “completely unacceptable”.