When political science professor Robert Baker walked into class at Wittenberg University last Wednesday, many of his students were confused about how and why their college town of Springfield, Ohio, had become a hot-button topic of national conversation overnight.
Just hours earlier, former president Donald Trump had amplified false rumors during a debate against the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, that Haitian immigrants in the community were abducting and eating pet animals. Although some of his students were aware there was tension over the growing presence of Haitian immigrants in town, he said they were “shocked and angered” that misinformation could spread so quickly and their campus could get caught in the crossfire.
By Saturday, however, the entire campus knew that Trump’s inflammatory, anti-immigrant rhetoric had thrust the blue-collar city of about 60,000 into the national spotlight. Both the university and other local institutions had received multiple bomb and shooting threats, prompting officials to cancel campus events over the weekend.
“The students expressed a lot of concern and fear,” Baker said. “Some actually left Wittenberg Saturday, went home and said they weren’t going to come back until they felt safer.”
Now classes at Wittenberg—a small, private liberal arts institution—will be held online through Friday because of ongoing safety concerns. Clark State College, a nearby public community college, also opted to go virtual this week as the broader Springfield community deals with the fallout of being at the center of a campaign of lies and the polarized national debates over immigration policy.
And though officials have confirmed that the city’s cats and dogs are safe, two hospitals and the local K-12 schools have been placed on lockdown or evacuated. The city also canceled an upcoming culture festival out of an abundance of caution.
“We recognize that the past few days have been particularly challenging for everyone in our community,” Springfield Police said in a statement. “We take any and all threats to our community’s safety very seriously and continue to work diligently to address them.”
Wittenberg initially planned to hold classes online for just one day but changed gears Monday afternoon after numerous additional bomb and shooting threats poured in yesterday morning. Neither Wittenberg nor Clark State has come under attack so far.
Brian Yontz, Wittenberg’s provost and a professor of education, said each decision has been the result of numerous meetings with the university’s emergency response team, the governor’s office, the mayor and others. He added that he understands some students may be frustrated with going online, but he personally has not received any complaints.
“Great teaching and learning are the most important things that we do,” he said. “Those things can’t happen well unless our students are cared for and their health and safety is secure. I would encourage any administrator to keep that as the primary objective in all decisions.”
Both Wittenberg and Clark State have increased the police presence on their campuses and are providing additional mental health counseling services.
“We understand the anxiety that such incidents can cause and we are treating this matter with the utmost seriousness and care,” Clark State officials wrote in a statement to the campus community. “We remain dedicated to providing strong academic programs and will work to ensure minimal disruption to our educational environment, but we will always prioritize the safety and wellness of our students, employees and community.”
Rumors targeting the city’s immigrant population first stirred as early as Sept. 6, when a post surfaced on X in which a Springfield community member said their “neighbor’s daughter’s friend” saw a cat hanging from a tree to be butchered. Paired with a photo that showed a Black man carrying what appeared to be a dead goose, the poster claimed it was the home of a Haitian family.
Then, on Sept. 9, Trump’s running mate—Ohio senator JD Vance—added fuel to the fire, saying on X, “Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country.” But it wasn’t until Trump himself referenced Springfield in the Sept. 10 debate that the campaign of misinformation really gained steam.
“They’re eating the dogs,” he said on the debate stage. “They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
Debate moderators quickly pointed out that city officials said the claims weren’t true. Vance also implied as much, saying in a Sept. 10 tweet it was possible “all of these rumors will turn out to be false.” Then, over the weekend, Vance told CNN, “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.”
Some Trump and Vance supporters, including Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, have continued to propagate the lies, posting images of animals with statements urging people to vote for Trump “so Haitian immigrants don’t eat us.” But Ohio governor Mike DeWine, a Republican, refuted the claims of chaos in Springfield, calling them “a piece of garbage” and “not helpful.”
“I think it’s unfortunate that this came up,” DeWine said in an interview with ABC News. “Let me tell you what we do know, though. What we know is that the Haitians who are in Springfield are legal. They came to Springfield to work.”
About 15,000 Haitian immigrants live in Springfield and the surrounding community, city officials estimate. They say it’s impossible to provide an exact number of how many live in the community but note that the number has grown in recent years, particularly because of the job opportunities in the city, which is located between Columbus and Dayton.
“What the companies tell us,” the governor added, “is that they are very good workers. They’re very happy to have them there. And frankly, that’s helped the economy now.”
DeWine pledged at least $2.5 million in state funding last week to help Springfield officials with health-care access and road safety—a move that education advocates commend.
Baker said the tension between local residents and Haitian immigrants “didn’t happen overnight.” Legal migrants, many with Temporary Protected Status, began arriving around 2018, but it was relatively quiet until August 2023, when a van of Haitian workers collided with a local school bus, injuring many and killing one child.
“That was the trigger point that generated tons of negative backlash,” he said.
The recent debate, he explained, only ramped up the vitriol. But it’s also increased efforts across the community and college campuses to try to tamp down the hysteria—efforts that are more complicated when they have to teach and learn online.
“There are student groups trying to get together to form discussion groups, and there are faculty members who are organizing teach-ins to just talk about what’s happening and just answer questions,” he said. “The problem with doing that is, of course, we can do it on [Microsoft] Teams, but it’s much better if we can do it in person.”
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Source: Inside Higher Ed
