Elite Claremont McKenna College may discipline with suspension or expulsion some unruly students who effectively shut down a Blue Lives Matter presentation, The College Fix reports.
Heather Mac Donald, author of “The War on Cops,” was visiting the campus last week when she was confronted by a crowd of students chanting Black Lives Matter (BLM) slogans, not allowing her to speak.
Joann Young, director of media relations at the school, confirmed that the college’s administration is already reviewing videos, photos and social media posts related to the event in order to document the the rowdy behavior that included 250 protesters blocking the doors to the building where Mac Donald was supposed to speak.
The Manhattan Institute scholar finally live-streamed her speech to an almost-vacant auditorium as the protesters did their the even interrupt that effort by banging their fists against the walls and shouting BLM lines like “fuck the police” and “black lives matter.”
Young said the behavior was unacceptable and that offending students are liable to punishment “including but not limited to temporary or permanent separation from the college.”
Hiram Chodosh, president of Claremont McKenna College, described those instigating the riot as “a large group of students from the Claremont Colleges, including a small number of CMC students and some individuals from external communities.”
Claremont McKenna is part of the Claremont Colleges group, which includes four other upper-crust private universities in Southern California: Pomona, Scripps, Harvey Mudd and Pitzer colleges.
Students are believed to have shared the Facebook post “Shut Down Anti-Black Fascist Heather Mac Donald” to have attracted the numbers they did.
The college’s president is blaming some of the chaos on his decision not to tell campus security to break-up the mob that was blocking the auditorium entrances.
“Based on the judgment of the Claremont Police Department, we jointly concluded that any forced interventions or arrests would have created unsafe conditions for students, faculty, staff, and guests. I take full responsibility for the decision to err on the side of these overriding safety considerations,” Chodosh said.
“Notwithstanding these efforts to stifle a speaker, Heather Mac Donald was able to give her presentation to a small audience at the Athenaeum. We also live-streamed her talk. Nearly 250 people viewed the presentation live, and her presentation that is posted on our CMC homepage has already been viewed over 1,400 times. In the end, the effort to silence her voice effectively amplified it to a much larger audience,” he argued.
“Blocking access to buildings violates College policy. CMC students who are found to have violated policies will be held accountable. We will also give a full report to the other Claremont Colleges, who have responsibility for their own students.”
He concluded by saying the school will develop strategies to make sure a mob of students cannot shut down a sanctioned campus event again.