Posted on 05/31/2002 6:31:30 AM PDT by mondonico
SFSU Update: A Parent's Tale
Remember this? On May 7, there was some on-campus ugliness at SFSU. During a peace rally organized and held by Jewish students, pro-Palestinian counter-protestors harassed, threatened and verbally abused rally attendees. SFSU officials did little to stop this behavior. Mainstream press response to it all was surprisingly light.
Well, now Patricia Jennings, mother of rally-organizer and SFSU student Isaac Goldstein, has kindly decided to share her own experiences as they relate to this event.
She attended the event herself, and was naturally dismayed at what played out. Rather than summarize her experience, I'll quote the majority of a long letter she sent to SFSU's President Corrigan:
My son, Isaac Goldstein, is a sophomore at SFSU. Today I attended the anti-hate, support Israel rally in Malcolm X Plaza and was sickened and dismayed by the disgraceful behavior of the counter demonstrators. Over the past two years, my son has recounted multiple occasions of harassment and hate speech and I came to see what he was up against and to support him in his efforts to combat hatred and anti-Semitism on his campus.Not only was horrified by the conduct of the counter demonstrators but by the total ineffectiveness of the administration officials and the police at controlling them. When I first arrived, I could barely hear the speakers because the counter-demonstrators were drowning them out using several bullhorns, chanting, and drumming. One girl interrupted the rally by pushing herself into the crowd and continuously blowing an ear-piercing whistle. The police removed her, but later she returned to the plaza with a very large Palestinian flag on a wooden pole. As she aggressively waved this flag back and forth she hit me on the head very hard, totally unprovoked by me in any way.
This behavior was in direct violation of California Law - Title 5: 42353. Public Meetings, Performances, Rallies & Similar Events (8) "Counter demonstrators may not use any amplified sound systems, bullhorns, airhorns, drums, etc.," (11) "All signs carried by demonstrators shall be on paper or cloth. Signs shall be hand carried and not attached to any other material. They should not be attached to poles or sticks." and (4) "Counter demonstrations must remain peaceful. Violations could result in arrests, disciplinary action against individual student(s) and suspension or withdrawal of recognition of campus student organizations." Why was this woman allowed to return to the plaza wielding a heavy wooden sign after she had been removed once for disturbing the rally and breaking the law?
My son was involved in the negotiations with the administration prior to the event. He told me that they had requested that the counter demonstrators be kept back 100 feet from the plaza because they feared what might happen. Dean Monteiro, Will Flowers and Kevin Bowman all agreed to this provision, however, a few days before the event, they rescinded, changing the radius to 64 feet. When I arrived at 12:20, the counter-demonstrators had already broken through the boundary fence and were mingling with the people on the plaza. The police were not enforcing the radius, as evidenced by the young woman with the whistle who accosted me later with her sign.
The Jewish student organizations had reserved the plaza from 12 until 2:00 PM. At 1:30, the police and the administration allowed the counter demonstrators to flood the plaza and to come at the Jewish students who were standing by their table. The counter-demonstrators blocked the entrance to the student union. We were cornered in front of the building, unable to leave, and subjected to the most hateful speech I have ever heard in my life. Students were yelling, "Jews off campus," "Zionism is Nazism," "Death to Jews," "Burn, M----- F-----, Burn," "Hitler should have finished the job," among others too vile to repeat in writing. We stood together and sang peace songs. I was so proud of the Jewish students. Despite being subjected to this awful hate speech, none of them responded in kind but continued to sing songs of love and peace.
The counter demonstrators screamed at us to remove the banner and the flags that had been hung for the rally, although it was only 1:30 and the reserved time was not up. One of the Arab group pushed his way through the crowd and began climbing the building in order to remove a flag. The above actions were in violation of several sections of the above referenced law: (6) "Counter demonstrations of indoor events are restricted to outside the building where the event is occurring, regardless of weather conditions. No doorways or entrances to any building or room may be blocked at any time," and (7) "Counter demonstrations of outdoor activity must not interfere with the scheduled activity and may not be held within 30 feet of the scheduled activity. This 30-foot area is a complete radius of the event, which includes the top of the Cesar Chavez Student Center)."
As the counter-demonstrators began flooding the plaza, Will Flowers and Kevin Bowman told my son Isaac to make everyone leave. This was a totally unreasonable demand. The time was not up and many people were still in the plaza, singing, talking, passing out flyers, and praying. It was not Isaac's responsibility to make everyone leave the plaza. He is just a student and he had every right to be there with his fellow students and community members. It was the responsibility of the University to protect the event from the actions of the counter-protestors under California law. The Arab student groups have held countless rallies at the plaza this year. Couldn't the administration protect the Jewish students for one two-hour rally!
I am extremely concerned about the hateful atmosphere that exists at San Francisco State University. Why is the Administration allowing this to go on? The University web site defines a hate crime as "any act of intimidation, harassment, physical force, or the threat of physical force, directed against any person or family, or their property or advocate, motivated either in whole or in part by hostility to their ethnicity, race, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, or political/religious beliefs with the intention of causing fear or intimidation, or to deter the free exercise or enjoyment of any rights or privileges secure by the Constitution ort the laws of the United States or the State of California, whether or not performed under color of authority. 422.6 PC The hate crime has to enhance another crime." The hate crime I experienced, enhanced the violations I mentioned above.
Furthermore, SFSU Practice Directive P530D Principles of Conduct for a Multi-Cultural University state, "Behaviors which are intolerant, insensitive or discriminatory are deemed unacceptable. As such, they shall be addressed openly, promptly and constructively by the University, its administrators, faculty, staff and students." My son has been targeted by hateful, intolerant behavior for two years and has yet to see any evidence of University action.
Finally, a few months ago, my son brought home a most vile and disgusting poster that was massively circulated on campus. This poster depicted a blood libel that Jews have been subjected to since the Middle Ages. I was appalled. I have been in contact with members of the administration and was referred to your letter to the community regarding the poster, however this slap on the hand is obviously woefully inadequate. Do you understand the gravity of this poster? Has there been any consideration for the effect these posters has had on the social and emotional welfare of your students? How do you think Jewish kids feel when they see this garbage plastered around their campus? What about the kids who are not Jewish and have no understanding of the context to comprehend and thus reject this libel? When college students see such posters, it is easy to assume that there must be some truth there; after all, it is a college campus, right? Allowing the distribution of such disgusting libel perpetuates hatred and ancient anti-Semitism. At an institution of higher learning such libel should be confronted head-on with the truth. Students should be educated about the historical roots of this libel and of the roots of ethnic hatred in general.
SFSU needs a massive effort to combat hatred and ignorance. The administration must educate itself in this regard. This is imperative! A public university supported by our tuition and tax dollars should not be allowed to become a breeding ground for intolerance and hatred of the most malicious kind. Students who insist upon attacking others for their religious beliefs and their political views should be expelled from the campus. California law should be enforced and violent offender should be arrested. There must be a zero tolerance policy for this behavior.
Meanwhile, in the blogosphere, the story was getting around, and between that and forwarded emails, a good head of steam built up behind a general condemnation of the misbehavior and the school's seeming complacence.
On May 13th, Corrigan responded with a campus-wide message. That same day, Jennings attended a meeting with President Corrigan, members of his staff including Ken Monteiro, members of the Jewish community, two students, Seth Brysk, director of Hillel, Professor Laurie Zoloth and Professor Fred Astren. After the meeting, Jennings wrote a followup email to Corrigan that included the following:
I would like to set the record straight regarding the flood of e-mails you have received. I believe that most of the outrage came in response to my letter, not Professor Zoloth's. In response to my original letter to you, Dr. Monteiro responded to me by equating the behavior of the two groups as equally vile while totally ignoring my legitimate complaints. So angered by this callous and inadequate response, I broadcast my original letter with his response. From my perspective, Dr. Monteiro's e-mail response was a public relations debacle.Thank you for your report to the Campus of 5/13. It is a strong statement of the University's condemnation of the incidents of last week. I implore to pursue your investigation to determine why the University rules and regulations were not enforced during this event. Counter demonstrators should not have had bull horns, whistles, or drums at the event. These should have been removed. Counter demonstrators should have been kept back from the plaza for the entire duration of time scheduled for the rally to avoid the situation where we were physically pinned against the building by a bullying, abusive mob.
At the meeting today, Mr. Bowman indicated that the University does not have the resources to enforce the above regulations. This is not an acceptable response. The University has a moral and legal obligation to enforce policies that were established to protect the rights to free speech and assembly for ALL the students, including the Jewish students, despite the political climate on campus. Pro-Palestinians are getting a clear message that the Administration is powerless to stop their hateful actions and illegal behaviors.
After the meeting, Ken Monteiro told me that in retrospect they made a mistake by allowing the pro-Israeli students to have a literature table located in the traditional spot by the building. This is outrageous. Rather than see the mistake in not limiting the illegal activities of the pro-Palestinian students, he sees the mistake in not limiting the lawful use of the plaza by the Jewish students! When I pointed out the unfairness in this conclusion, he did not seem to understand.
I came away from the meeting saddened. It seems that the University is not willing to provide the means to enforce the regulations that allow my son to exercise his right to free speech and free assembly without fear of abuse and intimidation.
I was also appalled to learn that none of the Jewish student organizations has been allowed a place on campus. There is absolutely no excuse for this.
I was also disturbed to learn that faculty are distributing lists of countries of the world that have Palestine listed but not Israel. I hope you will pursue this as well as the obvious anti-Semitism experienced my son and numerous students who are interested in the International Relations Program.
And then someone goofed.
Corrigan wrote the following short email:
Pam--This woman is causing almost as much trouble as our friend. She admits to having contacting many people with her view of SFSU. Be careful in how you respond.
RAC
Rather than sending it to Academic Senate Chair Pam Vaughn, he had mistakenly sent it to Jennings. You can imagine that this characterization of Jennings's concerns as "trouble", with the implication that SFSU's goal was to make the public relations problem go away, did not produce the intended result.
There's more to the story, of course, but I'm tired and headed to bed for now. This blog can only comment on one or two facets of the travesty at SFSU. Other dimensions of this incident and the alarming trends it represents are detailed in the full SFSU Blog Burst Index at Winds of Change.
We've got to get the tenured radicals OUT of academia.
Check out the link at the top of the post for a pretty good 'blog.
Riiight!!! What a pile of usda grade-a male bovine excrement!
I for one am getting real tired for people NOT having the moral fortitude to call something wrong.
State was also home to the Psychedelic Research Institute, which was a class where you took LSD (before it was made illegal).
Dontcha get it? The admin IS them. Playing up to them as some kind of evenhanded but incompetent or fearful entity plays into their hands. They need to be challenged directly.
Although I sympathize with you and agree with what you wrote, my question is: Why is your son even enrolled in that snake pit? Even Kalifornia must have a few (very few, probably) decent colleges.
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