Cleveland State University washed away a 9/11 chalk memorial Monday by a pro-capitalist student group on campus. The memorial featured the American flag and the words, “No day shall erase you from the memory of time.”
Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk tweeted out an image of the memorial, which he says was removed just hours after it was created. The image shows a university maintenance worker removing the piece of art with a power washer this morning, The College Fix reported.
Today our @TPUSA group at Cleve. St. made a memorial to 9/11 victims
Not long after the school comes and POWER-WASHES to remove it!
RT! pic.twitter.com/GIbOKVAC9Q
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) September 11, 2017
Speaking to the publication, CSU’s TPUSA chapter president Tiffany Roberts says that members of the group gathered on Sunday evening to chalk the 9/11 tribute into the sidewalk of the public university to honor those who lost their lives in the 2001 terrorist attack. It was removed 12 hours later.
According to Roberts, the maintenance operator said that he had been ordered to remove the chalk by the university’s Director of Facilities Maintenance, Shehadeh Abdelkarim. She added that the employee said that the memorial was erased because “there is no chalk allowed on campus.”
Roberts told The College Fix that she went to the Dean of Students Office to attempt to speak with Dean Jim Drneck. Instead, another administrator, Susan Greco, met with the group and was reportedly “very vague” with her explanations for why the memorial was washed off.
“I am extremely disheartened by this situation, as my members put a lot of hard work and time into the memorial and it is very disconcerting that the school would wash away something designed to honor the Americans who lost their lives on September 11th,” she said.
Turning Point USA told The College Fix that they are “deeply disappointed” by the school’s decision to “destroy” the 9/11 memorial, adding that they are “very concerned that administration is removing free speech from publicly funded sidewalks of a publicly funded university campus.”
Ian Miles Cheong is a journalist and outspoken media critic. You can reach him through social media at @stillgray on Twitter and on Facebook.