Noose discovered hanging from tree at Stanford University

May 10 (UPI) -- For the third time in four years, a noose was found Sunday evening on Stanford University's campus in Palo Alto, Calif.

The school's Department of Public Safety said on its website that it believed that ropes were tied to a tree for a performance by a student organization several years ago.

"The ropes were never removed from the tree," the department said. "This evening [Sunday] it was discovered that one of the ropes had been made into a noose. "

The incident was quickly condemned by school officials.

"A noose is a hateful representation of anti-Black racism and violence. It is deeply disturbing that someone would choose to inflict this repugnant symbol on our community," Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne wrote to the campus community on Monday.

In a similar noose incident from 2019, campus administrators apologized for their "untimely and insufficient" response in that matter.

The university said that it has "begun to develop an outreach plan to provide assistance to all who are in need, bearing in mind that this is not the first time this has occurred at Stanford in recent years," according to The Stanford Daily on Monday.

In November, two cords resembling nooses were discovered in a tree along the Lake Lagunita walking trail.

Under California law, hanging a noose is considered a hate crime.

"Hanging a noose is directly correlated with America's history of racial hatred and murder, representing not only a threat to African American life and safety, but causing further psychological and emotional trauma as well, and noose hanging is still happening now," according to the text of the bill that was passed in 2010.

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, founded in 2005 to honor the legacy of the slain civil rights leader, is based at Stanford.