A freshman student at Bryn Mawr College has dropped out after what she says was unbearable harassment from her fellow students for supporting President-elect Donald Trump.
In September, shortly after starting at the Pennsylvania women’s school, Andi Moritz made a post on the Bryn Mawr’s ride-sharing Facebook page, asking if anybody wanted to accompany her during a Saturday spent campaigning for Trump.Moritz said she wanted another girl along to ensure her safety since she was carpooling with a man she didn’t know.
The request turned out to be a big mistake, as Moritz was bombarded with hundreds of comments from fellow students, most of them extremely hostile.
“Nobody has the right to an opinion of bigotry. 0 tolerance for fascists!” one comment said, according to Philly.com.
“Why y’all doing this free labor for white supremacists tho,” another said. Students on Moritz’s floor held a meeting about the content of her post, and after a discussion, she took it down entirely.
Moritz told the English House Gazette, a Bryn Mawr student blog, that a low point came when she was approached by a peer mentor in her dorm, who instead of offering support began to vilify her. The peer mentor said Moritz had “personally attacked” other students by expressing support for Trump.
Moritz told Philly.com the response was so hostile she ended up calling a suicide hotline for support. Later, she visited a campus counselor, who she says wasn’t very helpful.
“She basically defended the people who had said mean things to me,” she told the English House Gazette.
Just a few days after the Facebook post, Moritz decided to drop out of Bryn Mawr. She says when she told a school dean about it, the dean appeared “relieved,” and made no effort to convince her to stay.
The backlash apparently wasn’t limited to Moritz. Anna Gargiulo, who wrote the English House Gazette article that first told Moritz’s story, told Philly.com she has also been harassed simply for writing the article.
“It was me speaking up about an event that honestly shouldn’t have happened on a college campus like Bryn Mawr,” said Gargiulo, who herself voted for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. “It just makes me scared in terms of where we’re headed if the youth in this country can’t understand how to respectfully disagree.”
For the time being, Moritz is working at an animal shelter and considering starting again at a different college in the area.
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