Protests against gun-rights activist erupt at UCF
Dozens of students converged on UCF’s campus Thursday afternoon to protest a visit from a gun-rights activist, who the university said initially wasn’t wearing a mask and was violating the school’s social distancing policies.
Conservative activist Kaitlin Bennett, who visits college campuses across the country, made a stop at the University of Central Florida to “ask students who would be a better president for black Americans, Trump or Biden,” she wrote on Twitter.
A large gathering of protesters screamed at Bennett, with some telling her to “Go the [expletive] away!” Several people tweeted that her bodyguards assaulted some of the protesters.
On Thursday evening, Bennett tweeted that “left-wing terrorists” attacked her and her security team, and she called on Trump to “#DefundUCF & any other university that lets domestic terrorists shut down free speech.”
The university said it supported Bennett’s right to express herself, but she and her security team weren’t wearing masks when they arrived, a violation of the school’s policies intended to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Like its peers across the country, UCF has struggled to contain the virus and enforce social distancing policies as students have returned to campus for the first time since mid-March.
Earlier this week, the school suspended two Greek organizations accused of hosting unauthorized social gatherings and quarantined an entire class after a professor did not enforce the university’s mask order during a session that was attended by a student who later tested positive for coronavirus.
Interim Provost Michael Johnson did not name the instructor who he said oversaw a class where students were not wearing masks and moved tables close together and allowed the class to eat lunch together.
“All of this behavior violated UCF’s policies,” Johnson wrote in a message to faculty members.
The university also rebuked students for violating social distancing policies
this week. On Wednesday the university suspended Zeta Tau Alpha for hosting an on-campus gathering on Sept. 1. The sorority had sought the university ’s blessing to have the event, but as that approval was pending, the group went ahead and had the gathering anyway, the school said.
And Sigma Alpha Epsilon was suspended after the school said the fraternity had “a large social gathering” at an unspecified offcampus location.
Both chapters “willfully disregarded” university policies and guidelines, UCF said.
In addition to the Greek organizations, UCF suspended two students it said hadn’t complied with social distancing policies. One of them was accused of not remaining isolated after testing positive for the virus and the other, the university said, hosted large off-campus social gatherings that violated the school’s policy.
On Thursday afternoon, UCF addressed Bennett’s visit on Twitter, saying it must follow the law and allow outdoor public areas to be used for “spontaneous expressive activity.”
“The group on campus today was lawfully expressing their free expression rights but not complying with UCF’s COVID-19 policy, which requires everyone on campus to wear a face covering,” the university tweeted.
UCF staff explained the policy to the group and “after a period of time,” they complied, the university said.
“This is the first time during the period of COVID-19 that UCF has dealt with a free expression scenario of this nature, and the university must enforce this health and safety policy with all visitors,” the school
posted on Twitter.
Bennett is sometimes known as the “Kent State gun girl,” and drew national attention in 2018 when she posed for a graduation photo holding an AR-10 rifle in front of the Ohio university’s sign. She has hundreds of thousands of followers on her social media accounts.
Responding to the university’s message on Twitter, Bennett said her security personnel visited campus on Wednesday and was told by university policy they wouldn’t have to wear masks.
“What liars!,” Bennett wrote on Twitter in response to the university’s message. “I went to @UCF to ask students who would be a better president for black Americans, Trump or Biden, and YOUR students got violent and violated your COVID-19 policy that prohibits social gatherings of more than 12. But you didn’t
enforce that, did you?”
Videos posted to Twitter show large groups of protesters outside Millican Hall and other parts of campus. In some of them, people are shoving each other and in one, Bennett appears to be running toward a campus restaurant with several students following her.
Across the country, university leaders are struggling to prevent students from gathering in large groups and participating in other activities that could allow the virus to spread. Some, including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Temple University in Philadelphia, have switched back to mostly online classes after starting the year with in-person instruction because of outbreaks of the virus.
UCF leaders haven’t given any indication they’re considering shuttering campus as they did in March. During
the week that ended last Saturday, at least 74 students tested positive for the virus, the university’s public-facing coronavirus dashboard shows. That’s up from 20 the week before.
Last weekend, the university ordered students living in ZTA and two other on-campus sorority houses where 16 of the 79 residents have tested positive to quarantine for two weeks. Students were told to mostly stay in their rooms and must wear face masks and observe distancing protocol when they go to other parts of the chapter house to pick up food or other essential items.
It’s unclear if the unauthorized social event that led to ZTA’s suspension may have contributed to the spread of the virus in the chapter house.