A group of conservative students say their school is preventing free speech.
The president of the College Republicans at Framingham State College says the school told his group they would have to pay for campus police to be present at their protest of "The Vagina Monologues" if there were more than 100 participants, reports the Metro West Daily News.
"We were going to recruit some people from college Republicans in the greater Boston area. …We significantly limited our effort by making sure there were very few," says club President Ariel Sarousi.
School administrators require large groups to pay for police to be on-hand, according to the article.
"I do think it's fair because whether it was them or any other group, they'd have to do the same thing," Director of Multicultural Affairs David Baldwin said. "When we originally talked about this, (Sarousi) talked about it being over 100 people. For their safety, as well as others', we would need a police detail out there."
A member of the College Republicans tells the Metro West Daily News, "Throughout the whole process, we felt that we were being like intimidated." But the story goes on to say the dean of academic and student affairs says she asked the group before the event if there were any problems, and "they said 'absolutely not.'"
The College Republican president said the extra security would have cost $40 per hour for a minimum of four hours. The protest was scheduled to take no longer than a half hour, according to the article.
Isn't the school disenfranchising those clubs that are poor or have less available funds?
Can you imagine Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson's reaction if a large group of black men and women (who I’ve been told are less fortunate than other members of society) were told they had to pay to protest?
