Ohio school: Flier post botched

CLEVELAND — Cleveland State University said it will create an advisory committee and offer more sensitivity training after officials were criticized for their response to a flier that urged lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students to kill themselves.

The school said Friday in a statement that its initial response had been “inadequate” and left students and staff feeling “unsafe, unheard and unvalued.”

“Hate has no place in our community. It never will,” the statement said. “We unwaveringly value our marginalized students, faculty and staff.”

The flier appeared on a bulletin board Oct. 12, the same day a new LGBT center opened on campus. It urged LGBT students to “follow” those who had killed themselves and showed a silhouette of a man hanging from a noose. It contained a gay slur.

The flier was taken down, but officials said at the time that it would have been allowed to stay if the unknown people behind it had followed school posting procedures.

University President Ronald Berkman originally said the school was committed to upholding free speech rights instead of explicitly condemning the flier.

“We will continue to protect free speech to ensure all voices may be heard and to promote a civil discourse where educational growth is the desired result,” Berkman said at the time.

The school’s response angered students and provoked protests, petitions, and a tense, crowded meeting where students spoke about LGBT people they knew who took their own lives.