A student senate leader at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point has told pro-life display supporters they have no right to express their opinion on the volatile issue of abortion.
"It's not your responsibility," Roderick King, a sophomore at the school and member of its student senate, shouted at activists who had assembled a display of white crosses in the campus lawn – with university permission.
"[Abortion] is a right. You don't have the right to challenge it. Write a paper. Do NOT! Do NOT put this in front of all of us. This is not your right," he hollered, grabbing crosses with both hands, yanking them from the ground and throwing them to the side.
The episode was captured on a YouTube video:
The campus group Pointers for Life put up the Cemetery of the Innocents display last week then spent the next morning repairing the damage from someone who had vandalized the rows of white crosses representing the victims of abortion.
Then the crosses were trashed a second time, only this time the pro-life campaigners were armed with a video camera.
As students looked on, King led a group of angry students who walked through the rows of crosses, plucked them from the ground and tossed them.
Campus security was summoned, and when an officer arrived, most of the students left. King did not.
"The freedom of speech does not cover these signs and symbols," he said, according to a report from Students for Life.
"If students had a problem with the display, they could exercise their freedom of speech maturely by protesting it peacefully, not by defacing our display," said Jackie Kryzkowski, president of the student pro-life organization.
Bob Tomlinson, vice chancellor of student affairs, apologized to the student group for the vandalism, which took place even though the Pointers for Life had reserved the space properly. The student group also submitted a request that King be asked to resign from the student senate for his behavior.
Stephen Ward, executive director of university relations and communications, today issued a statement that the school had received "several communications" regarding the incident.
"The university values free expression and the open exchange of ideas. Pointers for Life is a recognized student organization that followed university procedure in staging its event," he said.
"The student who disrupted the display not only exhibited inappropriate behavior, but demonstrated intolerance that is unacceptable on the UWSP campus," the statement continued. "University procedures are being followed. In accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which protects our students from disclosure of their educational records, results of those procedures will not be made public."
The video shows King's confrontational attitude even with campus security.
"I don't care if they have the university's approval," he told the officer. "They're actually making the worst statement here. …"
He told the officer there could be students on campus planning abortions.
"You want this up in front of them? Are you crazy?" he shouted.
A senior on campus, Ryan Wrasse, told WND the campuswide reaction has been mostly supportive of the pro-life presentation.
"I've been on campus four years, and I've never seen anything like this before. We've had this display on campus, and have not had any problems," he said. "The hypocrisy is really overwhelming. [He was saying] 'My 1st Amendment right is more important than yours.'"
On her blog, WND columnist and pro-life activist Jill Stanek wrote that the incident simply "re-enforces the fact that the rule of law applies to all but the pro-aborts."
"Unbelievably, even after a university security guard showed up and told King to stop, he didn't, and the wimpy campus cop just let him continue ripping up crosses," she wrote. "King's illogical excuse was, 'If there is a student on this campus that has had an abortion or that might be having an abortion, might be going through this, you want this up in front of them? Are you crazy?'" she wrote.
"Illogical because if abortion is such a great right and a win-win (a win for moms offing unwanted babies and a win for unwanted babies being rescued from mad moms by death), what awful thing is there to 'go through'? And if King actually believed that, was he not generating more abortion by trying to keep mothers ignorant of the ramifications?"
But worse, she said, is the fact that despite the students' complaint, the Student Government Association has declined to take action.
"So much for choice…" wrote a contributor on Stanek's forum page.
"Wow! All I can say is welcome to the abortion debate Canadian-style," wrote another. "We can't protest or debate abortion in Canada because it's considered a basic human right (since when?). Never mind that the human baby doesn't have even the basic human right to life. ... This man has serious anger problems. I wonder how many unborn baby skeletons he has in his closet…?"
Kristan Hawkins, a spokeswoman for Students for Life, said the scenario actually was a replay of a similar case in Kentucky, only there it was a professor leading the charge against the pro-lifers. The incident, however, was not captured on video.
"What's very scary, it totally goes against everything our country stands for," she told WND.
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