Wheaton College receives threats meant for another school

January 19, 2016 5:19 pm

By Ana Bottary

abottary@abc6.com

@anabottary

Wheaton College and Wheaton College are two private schools with the same name. One in Massachusetts and one in Illinois. It’s a confusion that
Freshman Dami Olubusi has experienced first hand. Living in Abu Dhabi when she was applying to colleges, her paper work would often end up at the wrong school.

"When it came to sending in my school grades, it didn’t get here. I kept getting e-mails saying we haven’t received your grades," says Olubusi.

Recently, the mix-ups took a very different turn. In January, the Wheaton in Illinois that is strictly Christian, began the process of firing a teacher for wearing a head scarf in support of Muslims. Someone that was protesting that firing started sending threats–but to the wrong Wheaton college, and a flood of messages were sent to Norton.

"The President took the brunt of it with a number of things coming in through email, telephone, and voicemail, really challenging the college on the stance that they perceived us to be taking," says Wheaton Massachusetts Dean of Admissions, Grant Gosslin.

Some of the messages received were from guidance councilors stating they would not be sending students to Wheaton anymore. Others were threatening e-mails, saying, in part:

"The teacher should be sent to a Muslim country to see how wrong her ideas are, then be sold as a sex slave, and be stoned to death if she refuses."

Wheaton in Massachusetts administration says the two schools share a name, but are not related and do not share the same values, even posting the tale of two Wheatons on the home page of their website.

"This is an incredibly diverse community, and I think we pride ourselves in not only welcoming these students, but really embracing the different perspectives that they bring," adds Gosslin.