A group of young men photographed with a Western Lives Matter sign didn’t breach the university’s code of conduct, a school official said Tuesday.

An image uploaded to social media showing four purple-clad males in front of a bedsheet banner during Western’s unofficial Homecoming bash made national headlines earlier this month, prompting school officials to condemn the behaviour as “repugnant.”

But nobody involved in the Oct. 1 incident is being disciplined, said Jana Luker, Western’s associate vice-president of student experience.

“It did not rise to the threshold as a code violation under our student code.”

The photo, posted to the mobile image-sharing app Instagram, sparked a debate in the community. Some brushed it off as satire, saying it was mocking the university’s decision to move Homecoming in a bid to crack down on booze-fuelled debauchery.

Others called the hijacking of the Black Lives Matter slogan a racist act. An international movement against violence and racism, the Black Lives Matter campaign draws attention to the disproportionate number of black people killed by police.

dcarruthers@postmedia.com

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