***WARNING***If you are between the ages of 18-23 and believe everything your Leftist teachers and professors are feeding you, and you are offended by pretty much EVERYTHING, you may not want to read this story.
Students at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland were so traumatized by the prospect of sharing their campus with armed police officers during the Republican National Convention next week that the university has opted instead to essentially shut down for the week.
The students were incensed that school officials had agreed to allow police officers imported to maintain order during the convention to stay in campus housing. More than 300 of them signed an online petition demanding that, among other things, the “riot police” store their weapons off-campus between shifts, restrict themselves exclusively to the residence halls and abide by university rules regarding anti-discrimination and sexual harassment.
Some students even asked to be moved to alternative housing for the week, saying the increased police presence caused them to “fear for their safety” following the shooting deaths of two black men in Minnesota and Louisiana.
“I am scared and concerned for students of color, queer* and trans* students and all university community members at the mercy of an arbitrarily expanded police force without clear oversight or attachment to the community,” wrote one petitioner, Shannon Groll. “Please, protect CWRU as a safe space for all bodies.”
“I am deeply troubled by the presence – even temporarily – of a militarized police force on the CWRU campus,” wrote Keith Fitch. “The number one priority for an educational institution is to guarantee a safe environment for its students, faculty, and staff.”
Said petitioner Andrew Stark: “The institutionally-sanctioned presence of militarized police forces in an educational environment is unacceptable and contributes to the creation and maintenance of a gendered and racialized space, physically, socially and psychologically unsafe for persons belonging to marginalized groups.”
TRANSLATION PLEASE!??
Police officials assured the students and administration that any officers using the University to bed down during the convention would take care to secure their weapons between shifts, and that officers would be on their best behavior while on campus, but that wasn’t enough.
Campus administrators, including the campus President Barbara Snyder, tried to take students into consideration and address student requests as best as possible, but Tuesday morning felt they could no longer handle the overwhelming sentiment among the student body and simply closed campus for the week of the RNC.
President Snyder apologized profusely in an email to the students who had been “hurt” when the college approved the city’s request to house officers. “[I]n answering the city’s convention request, we failed to give adequate consideration to the impact the decision would have on members of our community—in particular students staying in residence halls near the buildings housing the officers.”
Classes will now be held off-campus next week, on-campus summer camps have been rescheduled, and students who live on campus or are staying on campus for the summer will receive help finding alternate accommodations. – Heatstreet
