Sticks and Stones

The Washington post has a hysterical article about racist incidents at the University of Virginia. The Post describes the events thusly:

Just a few weeks into the school year, U-Va. has had at least nine racist incidents -- slurs shouted from cars, ugly words written on message boards, a racist threat scrawled on a bathroom wall. And students, parents and alumni are demanding change.

Buried in the two pages of angst is this little gem of reality:

Some students said privately that the incidents had been overblown, that they were probably the work of a drunk townie, not someone on campus, and that it was better to ignore it than to give the perpetrators attention.

Let's assume it is a student. How serious is this? I'm not saying what's going on is nice, but the fact that after nine incidents no one has been identified as the culprit says to me that this person(these people?) are being fairly coy about it. The idea that this could become a campus wide social issue over the actions of a few idiots shows what an over-delicate hypersensitive society we live in.