A Skidmore College student claims she has been blocked from forming a conservative club by a "cancel culture campaign."
Hannah Davis had hoped to establish a chapter of the conservative group Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) on campus but said she got pushback from her classmates "almost immediately," Fox News reported.
Members of the student body launched a petition accusing YAL of being "springboards for hate speech and bigotry disguised as political discourse" adding that "their proclivity to spread hatred cannot be tolerated."
The petition soon gained traction and as of Thursday, had garnered over 1,780 signatures. In response, the Student Government Association told Davis she could not establish the YAL chapter as there were concerns of "hate speech and making students on campus feel unsafe," the Albany Times Union reported.
"I have been subjected to endless harassment, false accusations and threats of violence in which Skidmore has been slow in addressing properly," she said.
Davis explained the reason she chose YAL was because it wasn't a partisan group and thought classmates would be receptive to it. She was "clearly wrong" about that.
"They had a problem with just two or three examples of events or speakers," Davis explained. "They were really pushing back and calling young Americans for Liberty an alt-right organization, a White nationalist organization, which is just misinformation and has no truth behind it."
In a statement to the Times Union, college President Marc C. Conner said the student leaders had the right to vote to determine whether or not Davis could proceed.
"This is an important part of the educative experience for our students as they freely conduct their affairs and think about public discourse, civic engagement and campus culture," he said, adding that everyone was entitled to the right to free speech, association and assembly.
"These fundamental rights apply to all, regardless of political persuasion or other differences, including views and beliefs," Conner continued. "The rare exception would be hate speech, in which violence is clearly the goal, which would not be tolerated in our community. As always, I encourage all members of our community to exercise their freedom of speech and freedom of association and to engage with each other with patience, courtesy and respect for one another."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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