Students circulate a petition and plan an "anti-hate sit-in" outside of Careers at 11 a.m. Thursday in response to a Tuesday rally by a group of religious extremists.
By Nessa Kilson and Genesis Portillo
One group of students is circulating a petition asking the college to “stop right-wing extremists” from speaking on campus, and another has arranged for an “anti-hate sit-in” for Thursday in response to a controversial rally held outside of Careers on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, AACC President Dawn Lindsay sent a campuswide email on Wednesday offering support to students who may have been upset by Tuesday’s event, which was organized by a small group of non-AACC students and focused on inflammatory accusations against women, minorities and the LGBT community.
Cameron Millar, a former entrepreneurial studies student who is taking a gap year, started the petition after attending the religious rally outside of Careers on Tuesday.
“I walked up and I could hear them and I felt actual pain in my chest of just anger and also sadness that these people, like, truly believe this and are here to antagonize students and bully them, which is what they were doing.”
The ralliers, who said they are from a Virginia church called Key of David, spent hours on campus on Tuesday spreading messages like “Homos are rapists” and “Feminists are whores.”
“Why are … people allowed to be here and attack us?” Millar asked during an interview with Campus Current. “I felt that it wasn’t right [to] allow people to attack our campus. … This is supposed to be a place that we feel safe, where we are supposed to learn. It’s absolutely not fair to just be walking in between classes and have these extremists screaming at you, telling you that you’re a terrible person.”
In her email, Lindsay said the college is “legally and ethically bound to provide space for constitutionally protected speech, even speech we disagree with or find offensive.”
She added: “This means that, within the bounds of the law, outside individuals and organizations may come to campus and share their views–even if those views are seen as offensive, controversial or disturbing.”
Millar said 52 students signed the petition within an hour and a half after it was posted on social media and on bulletin boards in campus buildings.
“I think that everyone has the right to protest,” Millar said. “But when it gets to a point where you are just expelling violence, even if it’s not actual physical violence, it’s political violence, you’re calling people slurs and you’re calling them whores. It’s one thing if you want to have, like, a debate or you want to say, ‘Hey, this is what I believe,’ but it’s not OK to be fully attacking people and using such hateful language when you do it.”
Millar added, “I want people to know that us as students are not okay with it, and we do not stand for hate on our campus.”
The sit-in is scheduled for 11 a.m. outside of Careers.