NELSONVILLE, Ohio (AP) — An attacker could find many places to hide at Hocking College, a campus carved into a forest in the Appalachian foothills. And with the threat of a mass killing looming over black students at the community college, Allen Edwards is steering clear of the trees.

"I don't feel too safe walking by the woods," said Edwards, a 19-year-old black student from Canton. "There's woods everywhere. And somebody could be out in them, and I don't know."

The FBI is investigating a threat scrawled last week on a bathroom wall warning that black students would be killed Feb. 2. It bore the trademarks of just another casual — though chilling — threat of violence on a college campus, but students here aren't taking any chances.

At least two black students have withdrawn permanently from school out of fear for their safety, and another dozen have moved out of the dorm where the threat was found, officials at the two-year technical college said. Some students seem unperturbed, but others say the threat has brought simmering racial tensions to the surface.

The school confirmed Tuesday that the threat said black students would be killed Feb. 2. At least one subsequent note reading "kill the n------" was reported.

Hocking covers hundreds of densely treed acres in the Wayne National Forest about 60 miles southeast of Columbus. The campus overwhelms Nelsonville, an economically depressed rural town plagued with heroin addiction and unemployment. About 400 of the school's 6,300 students are black, many of whom are foreign exchange students from the Caribbean.

The college has provided temporary housing for students who are too scared to stay in Hocking Heights, the dorm where the threats were found. And for those wary of venturing outside until after Feb. 2, teachers are making allowances for missed classwork.

Since the first threat was discovered Friday, the school has installed more security cameras in dorms and beefed up foot patrols. A $5,000 reward is being offered, and extra counselors are on hand.

Campus spokeswoman Judy Sinnott said that she had not heard previous complaints of racist taunting, but that on a small campus, anything can happen.

"Any time that there are young people, you know, there's going to be tension," Sinnott said. "Young people will be young people."

Edwards lives on the second floor of Hocking Heights, a few doors down from the two black students who abruptly quit. He's contemplating leaving, too, but hasn't decided.

Edwards said he has seen racist comments written on the same bathroom wall in the past but didn't let it bother him. But two days after the first threat was found, he saw the second on the bathroom wall and reported it to campus police.

"I'm not sure how to feel," he said. "I'm just going to see how everything plays out."

Another resident of the second floor, Amelinda Marengo, sat on her bed and said that even though the threat doesn't include her, she is still afraid.

Marengo, who is half Puerto Rican, said she and her black roommate endured racist taunts in the cafeteria on several occasions last year. Her roommate declined to be interviewed.

"We'd be sitting at a lunch table and some guys would be sitting across the room, and they'd be screaming, like, 'n----- lover' across the table," Marengo said. "I had enough of it one day and I got up and I just started yelling at them and telling them, like, 'There is no reason for you to treat someone like that.'"

About a year ago, Marengo said, a male friend led her into the second-floor men's bathroom and showed her racist comments on the wall, including a drawing of what .....

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Carry a gun, period

by   
A_day_in_the_life
January 29, 2010, 11:27 pm
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Camira!! who ever you are, I totally agree and feel the same way that you do, on the comment you made to Debianne . i wish everybody would use that method of thinking...Hey Psychology works!!, maybe more of our people need to study Psychology so that they will know its affects. hmm who do you trust?? Good day to you mam.

by   
Irregular
January 29, 2010, 9:02 pm
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Creepy incident, indeed. BTW, Nelsonville is located in Athens County, OH (next to the West Virginia border). In presidential elections, Athens County is the most Democratic (largely because of the college town Athens) in Southeast Ohio. It was the second bluest county in the state of Ohio in 2008 (67%-31%) next to Cuyahoga (Cleveland - 69%-30%) and was also one in a handful of counties in Southeast Ohio to support the president (exemplary of resistance among some Appalachian voters in the economically-challenged Appalachian southeast of Ohio).

by   
Myster88
January 29, 2010, 1:25 pm
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It is a sad day when students can't matriculate at the college of their choice without fools making threats to harm them. A lot of pparents have raised a whole new generation of "Hate mongers!"

by   
Brightwood1
January 29, 2010, 12:33 pm
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Debianne, I wouldn't either. That's what the person or persons who wrote that message wants--for the Black students to be afraid enough to leave. That's why they need to stay.

by   
CAmira
January 29, 2010, 11:42 am
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They want you to run and there is probably no real threat because anyone that would leave a message is nothing more than a coward. I would just start carrying a gun but I wouldn't interrupt my education cause some ignorant cracker couldn't find better use for his time.

by   
Debianne
January 29, 2010, 9:27 am
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