To: Asnuntuck Community College Administrators
Asnuntuck College: Stop silencing and intimidating your students!
This fall, Asnuntuck Community College student Nicholas Saucier videotaped himself calling out Connecticut Gov. Dannel about the state's recent gun legislation.
Asnuntuck responded by running Nick off campus, suspending him from school, and pressuring him to plead guilty to harassment and submit to a psych evaluation before he could reapply for admission.
When Nick refused the deal, the school refused to let him submit his own recording of the debate as evidence. And when students called out Asnuntuck for attacking Nick's First Amendment Rights, it responded by deleting all their comments.
If we speak out while his story is still in the news, we can force Asnuntuck to clear his record and apologize for its appalling disregard for student rights.
Asnuntuck responded by running Nick off campus, suspending him from school, and pressuring him to plead guilty to harassment and submit to a psych evaluation before he could reapply for admission.
When Nick refused the deal, the school refused to let him submit his own recording of the debate as evidence. And when students called out Asnuntuck for attacking Nick's First Amendment Rights, it responded by deleting all their comments.
If we speak out while his story is still in the news, we can force Asnuntuck to clear his record and apologize for its appalling disregard for student rights.
Why is this important?
If we keep letting schools ignore students' rights and work with politicians to silence young critics, we can't call ourselves a democracy.