Former South Florida star posted a racial slur. Then she withdrew from her university

A former Cypress Bay girls soccer player withdrew from Georgia State University on Monday after a social media post of hers containing a racial epithet resulted in backlash at the school.

According to the Georgia State Signal, 18-year-old freshman Natalia Martinez on Friday used the N-word on Finsta, a secret version of Instagram. The school became aware of the post on Friday morning, Georgia State associate athletic director Mike Holmes told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Martinez, from Weston, was suspended from the soccer team before telling the school about her intentions to withdraw.

A petition began circulating on the internet Saturday for Georgia State to take a tougher stance on the situation. It has received almost 700 signatures as of Tuesday morning. Martinez “officially” withdrew from the school Monday afternoon, according to the AJC.

“As a progressive, diverse university, we GSU students feel like this sort of behavior should not be tolerated and that Natalia should be expelled from the university,” petition creator India Bridgeforth wrote.

In a statement, the university said it does “not tolerate the language (Martinez) used in her post.”

This story was originally published January 23, 2018 at 10:29 AM with the headline "Former South Florida star posted a racial slur. Then she withdrew from her university."