In December we talked about the upsetting events at Kean University where someone was tweeting death threats against all of the black students on campus. This was taken as evidence that University President Dawood Farahi should resign, having failed to provide a sufficiently safe environment for his minority students. Of course, it later turned out that the death threats had come from one of the organizers of the protests against the administration (Kayla McKelvey by name, who was herself black) and the demonstrations seemed to die down for a while.

Now, however, the student in question is learning that there is a price to be paid for such stunts. In January, McKelvey’s attorney attempted to cut a deal which would result in nothing more than probation for her actions. That didn’t sit well with the judge however, and it looks like a more serious sentence is heading her way despite having now confessed to cooking up the entire hoax herself. (Yahoo News)

A former leader of a black student group pleaded guilty Monday to creating a false public alarm by tweeting anonymous threats against fellow black college students last fall.

State prosecutors will recommend that Kayla McKelvey be sentenced to 90 days in jail and that she pay restitution of about $82,000 to cover the costs of the police response and heightened security at Kean University after the threats…

McKelvey and her attorney had sought to have her participate in a pretrial intervention program that would have allowed her to avoid jail. But a judge denied that request last week.

Her sentencing is scheduled for June 17.

Let’s remember that this wasn’t some simple prank which disrupted a few classes for an hour or two. The state and local police were dragged into the fray immediately and the Department of Homeland security was on top of it shortly thereafter. The fact that the total tab came to less than $100K is actually rather remarkable given all the resources which poured into the area.

But at the same time, the cops aren’t stupid. They were honor and duty bound to take the threat seriously and move swiftly, but as I noted when the story first broke, they clearly found the online, social media evidence more than a bit dodgy. One of the highlighted tweets (long since deleted) said, “I will kill all the blacks tonight, tomorrow and any other day if they go to Kean University.” And it wasn’t sent out into the ether as a general statement or even directed at any of the students or faculty. She tweeted it directly at the account of the university police department. I’m not going to argue that some of the actual racists you run across in the news these days aren’t garden variety morons, but it’s rare you’ll find somebody that stupid. That’s the action of someone who either desperately wants to be caught or a fraud trying to stir up trouble.

Now she has confessed to the entire affair, but rather than bringing down the “racist” university administration, Ms. McKelvey will wind up spending some time in the Crowbar Motel and coming out in debt to the tune of an amount worth more than three years of tuition (including room and board) at the school. Well played, young lady. Perhaps this story will have others thinking twice before doing something similar.