USA TODAY International Edition
School rejects demand to expel
Nevada-Reno senior seen at Virginia rally that turned violent
Peter Cvjetanovic didn’t anticipate that a photo of him marching at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., would go viral. But that’s exactly what happened.
Since he was caught on camera, the University of NevadaReno senior has been facing condemnation and calls for his expulsion and firing from his campus job. But the university is resisting those calls.
Following the “Unite the Right” rally in Virginia, Cvjetanovic spoke to multiple media outlets about the photo, which depicts him chanting and holding a torch as he marched across the University of Virginia campus Aug. 11 with a group of white nationalists.
The events were organized in response to the city’s planned removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and dissolved into violence that Friday night and Saturday.
“I understand the photo has a very negative connotation. But I hope that the people sharing the photo are willing to listen that I’m not the angry racist they see in that photo,” Cvjetanovic, who is studying history and political science, told Channel 2 News in Nevada.
He said he went to the march because he supports the message that “white European culture has a right to be here just like every other culture” and wanted to “honor and respect” what Lee “stood for during his time,” he told Channel 2.
“As a white nationalist, I care for all people. We all deserve a future for our children and for our culture. White nationalists aren’t all hateful; we just want to preserve what we have,” Cvjetanovic said.
After Twitter users, including Cvjetanovic’s classmates, identified him as a UNR student, university President Marc Johnson issued a statement acknowledging that one of the Charlottesville marchers did, indeed, attend UNR. The statement did not name Cvjetanovic directly.
“Racism and white supremacist movements have a corrosive effect on our society,” Johnson said. “These movements do not represent our values as a university.”
Johnson held a news conference responding directly to the calls for Cvjetanovic to be disciplined, expelled or fired from his on-campus job.
“We’ve had many suggestions,” Johnson said. “Most of those say that we should expel him and terminate his employment . ... However ... we have no legal or constitutional basis upon which to expel him from studies or terminate him from employment.”