A student at a small Baptist college in Florida says he has been expelled after he decided it would be a good idea to dress in Civil War-era military garb and stand at attention holding a Confederate flag and an AR-15 rifle in front of a General Robert E. Lee statue in Emancipation Park in Charlottesville, Virginia last week.
The student, who appeared in an Associated Press video which quickly spread across the Internet, is Allen Armentrout of High Point, North Carolina, reports Piedmont Triad NBC affiliate WXII-TV.
The incident that led to Armentrout’s alleged expulsion occurred last Tuesday.
Armentrout suffered an absolute torrent of verbal abuse and obscene hand gestures from other people in the park as he stood saluting Lee and otherwise made his symbolic stand.
Armentrout said he trekked to Charlottesville with his Confederate military uniform, his flag and his weapon because he wanted to honor Lee — “the greatest American that ever lived,” he told WXII-TV.
On Thursday, Armentrout claimed, officials at Pensacola Christian College informed him that he has been expelled.
“I have been released from my school and will be unable to return to college to finish my senior year,” Armentrout told the NBC station. “I’m processing this and making adjustments to my life to compensate for this scrutiny.”
“I’m a born-again Christian and I believe this wrench has hindered my attempt to serve the Lord,” Armentrout also said. “I believe a Christian institution should support patriotic individuals who want to stand for American tradition and beliefs. It really hurts me a lot when you try to do what’s right and you get attacked.”
Pensacola Christian College offers a “fourth-year-free program” which provides free tuition as well as free room and board for full-time seniors who stay enrolled for eight consecutive semesters and live in campus residence halls.
Armentrout says he will now lose that financial perquisite.
A year of tuition, fees and room and board at Pensacola Christian College costs $9,800.
“Now, essentially, if I want to complete my undergrad, I’ll have to pay, which I don’t have the resources to pay for a fourth year,” Armentrout told WXII.
Armentrout also said he is emotionally in flux and trying to “sort out the chaos” “caused by those who wish to destroy Southern heritage.”
Officials at Pensacola Christian College have neither confirmed nor denied Armentrout’s claim of expulsion.
“We do not share any private information about the students,” school spokeswoman Amy Glenn told the North Carolina NBC station. “Our hearts certainly go out to people suffering there and we are thinking about them from afar.”
The Associated Press video featuring Armentrout begins with a group of protesters chanting “terrorists go home” at him. (RELATED: Cop Accuses Antifa Of Instigating Violence)
Armentrout stands still and silent as the protesters chant and hold up middle fingers very close to his face.
“You have a home to go to. There are people who are dead and injured and stuck in the fucking hospital and yet you are here doing this when you could just stand up,” one woman pleads at Armentrout before yelling, “Get the fuck out of here!”
Eventually, police officers convince Armentrout to leave and they escort him to a waiting squad car.
A woman following behind the officers with a cell phone camera states that Armentrout had been “terrorizing” her and the other people who yelled obscenities at Armentrout and stuck their middle fingers in his face.
The police officer appears to be frustrated with the woman. We’re doing what you asked,” he says.
As the woman continued to film and harass Armentrout, the cop says: “You want another day like Saturday, don’t you?”
Last Saturday, amid protests and counter-protests in Charlottesville, a Nazi sympathizer allegedly plowed his grey Dodge Challenger through a large group of people on a pedestrian mall, killing one woman and injuring 19 others.
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