A message deemed offensive found scrawled in an all-gender restroom is provoking a strong reaction at San Joaquin Delta College.
The Stockton-based college’s president is seeking to reassure LGBTQIA+ students and workers that the campus community stands with them as police investigate the vandalism.
“I am working with our Delta College Pride Coalition on ways to provide support to those impacted by this incident,” President Lisa Aguilera Lawrenson said in a statement to the campus Friday. “ Moreover, I am dedicated to providing and maintaining an environment free from discrimination, including harassment.”
The vandalism involved writing on a trash can found in the all-gender restroom on Nov. 13 in Shima Center. Someone wrote “God made two genders,” Delta College police Sgt. Jim Bock said.
By the time officers arrived, apparently another person had edited the message to push it back on the writer. The original message was altered to say, “God hates you specifically” with the “made two genders” crossed out and the notation “wrong” added.
Though technically not a hate crime, the original message is considered “bias motivated,” Bock said.
Police are treating the incident as vandalism. Officers have reviewed hours of video recorded from outside the restroom to try to identify a suspect. But it’s been difficult, authorities said. The restroom is used so frequently it’s been hard to pinpoint a culprit, Bock said.
The college has all-gender restrooms in its larger buildings.
Lawrenson said that since the vandalism was directed against transgender and gender-non-conforming people, it is counter to the college’s mission as a “student-centered, anti-racist, equity-focused college.”
She vowed the incident will be thoroughly investigated.
“We will take immediate and appropriate action to investigate and respond to harassment that creates a hostile environment and illegal actions that discriminate against others,” she added in her letter to students and staff.