Dear Kutztown’s Bias Response Task Force,
The events that occurred on October 20 at the Academic Forum were unacceptable. Students were being screamed at, being told they will go to Hell for being themselves. Though I am a big advocate for free speech, this was hate speech. A young man was told he should commit suicide for being gay. Someone who rode past on a bicycle and yelled, “Hail Satan,” and the preacher told him to just get off campus, though this student is paying to be here for an education. A friend told me she was told she was not a woman because she was cursing. The preachers compared homosexuality to pedophilia. The words they used were hurtful and distracted students from doing what they are here to do. Get an education without feeling threatened or belittled.
After listening to some of what the preacher was saying, I went to my favorite class, Women Writers Around the World, taught by the one and only, Dr. Colleen Clemens. We had just read a very inspiring story call The Headstrong Historian, but no one in the class was ready to talk about it because we were so distracted by the hate that was happening nearby. We all said that we loved the story and wanted to discuss and analyze it like normal, but none of us could get our minds off what was happening outside the Academic Forum. I do not mean to speak for everyone in my class, but I am almost positive that we all felt powerless and incapable of getting them off our campus. It distracted us for the majority of class, and we were not able to have a satisfactory discussion on our reading.
I went back to the Academic Forum after class, this time with my camera. I felt it was important to document photos of what exactly was happening. It was pretty much more of the same. This time, the preacher was holding a photo of an aborted fetus. The same photo that is seen outside abortion clinics everywhere being held by people just like these preachers. He said the woman who aborted the fetus gave the father no opinion in the matter. He went into no detail, but put all reasons for abortion on the same playing field, calling abortion unfair to men. While abortion is a touchy subject, there is no reason to come on a college campus with those photos and “stories.”
Having grown up in an area that supported preachers like these, I know they feed off a crowd of screaming liberals. However, they should not be allowed on our campus. They cannot tell people they should commit suicide. They cannot tell women they are not women because they curse. They cannot tell people they are going to Hell because of their sexuality. They cannot be on our campus. Imagine what people visiting Kutztown were thinking. I know for a fact that if I saw this hate happening, I would not have chosen this school. These people should have been taken away, and it breaks my heart that students had to fight for their own, with no help from the university at the scene. Having cops stand there is not enough. There needs to be a plan set in place for the next time this occurs, because students should not have to feel threatened on campus.
Sincerely,
Katie