September lawsuit against Michigan Technological University and 11 key administrators, former MTU student Ryan Grainger is also being sued for his role in provoking the MTU administration to expel Matthew Schultz on December 22, 2015.
Grainger is accused of altering a Yik Yak post made by Schultz, which originally read “Gonna shoot all black people… A smile tomorrow,” with a “cheesy” emoji. The altered post simply read “Gonna shoot all black people.” This altered post was then emailed by Grainger to Brian Cadwell, the Deputy Chief of Police for the MTU Department of Public Safety and Police Services. In addition to the email sent to Public Safety, a Tweet of the altered Yak was posted by Nunya Bizness@MTUYAKS to the Michigan Tech Twitter account and the Twitter account of MTU administrator Les P. Cook. This precipitated an aggressive response from Public Safety, who arrested Schultz on the felony charge of domestic terror.
On December 7, 2015, the Houghton County Prosecutor dismissed all charges because there was no evidence of any crime or legitimate threat. Even so, Schultz was found responsible for violations of MTU policies concerning “Disruptive Behavior” and “Services,” which would have given him 18 months probation from studying at Tech. When Schultz appealed this decision Bonnie Gorman, the Associate Vice President and Dean of Students, increased the penalty from probation to expulsion, without the right to appeal. The ongoing litigation claims that this is a violation of Schultz’s right to due process.
Grainger maintains that he did not alter Schultz’s Yak. According to Grainger, a friend of his altered the Yak and when Grainger saw it, he thought that the edited Yak was a legitimate terror threat. “All I did was report a threat I had reason to believe was credible,” he said. Grainger requested that we not mention his friend’s name due to the unfortunate circumstances surrounding his passing earlier this year.
However, there are some inconsistencies between Grainger’s claims and the claims made in a police report by Public Safety Detective Sergeant Reid Devoge, who interviewed Grainger last February. According to the police report, published in the litigation with the university, Devoge visited Grainger on February 5, 2015 at his apartment on Blanche Street. When asked about the altered Yak, Grainger said that he did not alter the original post and that a person that he met on reddit was sharing his Twitter account Nunya Bizness@MTUYAKS. However, Grainger claimed that he did not know who this person was or if this person was local or if the person had altered the original Yak. According to the report, Grainger “said that the only way he communicated with this person is through the TOR, or underground (untraceable) internet.” Devoge then asked Grainger whether or not he thought that the person who altered the post did so with the intention of making the post look more threatening. “Grainger said ‘yes.’”
Grainger recalled a visit from Public Safety in February, but said that Chief of Police Daniel Bennett visited him. According to Grainger, Bennett came to his apartment to ask him questions, and among other things Bennett told him that Schultz “would’ve been in just as much trouble with the original post.” Moreover Grainger said, “this is just speculation on my part, but I think that he [Schultz] might’ve even been in serious legal trouble if the edited post had not been the one reported on.”
Whether or not Grainger altered the Yak, he left Tech during the Spring semester fearful of his own safety. “The threats I got included death threats like ‘I’ll find where you live and shoot you in the head,” said Grainger. He said that he had to receive regular check-ins from Houghton police, and apparently MTU gave him an apartment in Daniel Heights until he had a more secure place to live. Grainger also sought help from the Center for Diversity and Inclusion. “Renee Wells was one of the most helpful figures on campus for me. The talks I had with her made me proud of who I am, and made me realize exactly how toxic the student body could be,” he explained.
However after being threatened, stalked, and harassed by other Tech students, Grainger decided to leave. “To the people who think that I sat, cackling maniacally behind a computer screen, with intent to ruin Mr. Schultz’s academic career… I’m not surprised that your immediate reaction is to demonize the proud homosexual man in this situation,” Grainger said. “And to all of the gender and sexual minority students at Michigan Tech, I urge you, for your safety, to find another institution with a student body that will make you feel accepted and loved instead of hated and demonized.”
