Threat of school shooting forces Sarkeesian to cancel public talk
A talk by critic Anita Sarkeesian which was scheduled to take place today at Utah State University has been cancelled due to the school receiving threats of a shooting.
Sarkeesian, creator of Feminist Frequency and the Tropes Vs Women in Video Games series, was scheduled to host a talk at Utah State University before a series of events forced the cancellation.
According to a report by Polygon, an email was sent to members of the Centre for Women and Gender Studies. The email, a copy of which was obtained by The Standard Examiner, threatened the school officials that should the talk go through as scheduled, that person would create "the deadliest school shooting in American history."
The school's Twitter account warned of the threat before confirming the talk would no longer take place.
A threatening email sent to USU officials about Wednesday's speaker Anita Sarkeesian is being investigated by police. Details to come soon.
— USUAggies (@USUAggies) October 14, 2014
Sarkeesian later took to Twitter to explain that security at the the venue would not be adequate.
Forced to cancel my talk at USU after receiving death threats because police wouldn't take steps to prevent concealed firearms at the event.
— Feminist Frequency (@femfreq) October 15, 2014
Polygon spoke with Tim Vitale executive director of public relations and marketing at USU, who said the original email was sent to "five or six" members of the Centre for Women and Gender Studies, along with PR, alumni and other school offices.
Despite making preparations to provide security to the event, police officials in Utah are not able to prevent those with a legal permit to conceal and carry a firearm from entering the building.
The FBI Cyber Task Force has been contacted by school officials and is now involved in the investigation.
