The College Fix

YAF attorney issues demand letter, accuses school of ‘inconsistent enforcement’ of policy

The College of the Sequoias recently removed a conservative student group’s sidewalk chalk messages and accused the group of vandalism, sparking a free speech debate.

Leaders of the College of the Sequoias, a public two-year institution in central California, have also threatened disciplinary action against the Young Americans for Freedom chapter, leading the group’s faculty advisor to resign. The conservative group subsequently issued a demand for legal clarification regarding the college’s policies.  

The chapter’s student leader, Reagan O’Hara, told The College Fix his group turned to chalking because the school unfairly limited his group’s means of promoting an upcoming event.

O’Hara confirmed with the Student Activities Office that the college had no policy against chalking before writing messages on its campus’ sidewalks to promote the event and express other conservative ideas, according to a news release written by O’Hara.

Some of the messages included “Stop mutilating trans children,” “Pro-Life,” and “There are only two genders.”

The next day, administrators sent a crew to remove the chalk. Then, in an email to the student group, the college called the messages “‘graffiti’ and liken[ed] it to toilet-papering a house,” O’Hara wrote in the news release.  

In the same email, the school threatened disciplinary action and blamed the students for wasting the school’s resources to erase the chalk. However, the college also confirmed it did not have a policy against sidewalk chalk.

“This simple act of free speech … has sparked a police officer to accuse us of vandalism, our faculty advisor to quit, the student senate to threaten to de-recognize our chapter,  and (we suspect) faculty to cancel class because we promoted conservatism,” O’Hara wrote. 

He told The College Fix via email the options made available to his club for promoting events were extremely “restricted and ineffective.”

“There is a building on our school campus where clubs have their own boards where they can post anything,” O’Hara said. “YAF has never received one of those boards.”

Further, the school’s postering policy prohibits “So-called ‘hate’ literature” that “scurrilously attacks gender and sexual orientation (actual or perceived).” This definition is imprecise and subject to personal interpretation, posing issues for his club, he said.

“College is supposed to be about free expression and sharing new ideas with people. College should not put you in a bubble that protects your left-wing viewpoints,” he told The Fix.

Asked about the situation, college spokesperson Lauren Fishback told The Fix via email, “the safety and security of … students, faculty, and staff” is the school’s “top priority.”

“COS is committed to ensuring all students feel safe and welcome on our campuses. We are diligently working with legal counsel to determine the appropriate next steps and will issue a statement at a future time,” she said.

Meanwhile, YAF’s faculty advisor, Holly Peltzer, resigned from her position and apologized for the club’s “disrespectful and defiant actions towards the college,” according to the news release.

In a demand letter to the school from attorney William Becker of Freedom X, a free-speech advocacy group representing YAF, Peltzer’s resignation “basically crippled” the group, since every campus club needs a faculty advisor to host events or book rooms for speakers.

Becker asked for further clarification about COS’s “inconsistent enforcement” of its chalking policy, which—along with other obstacles, such as “delays and procedural challenges” to YAF’s repeated attempts to secure a venue for its speaker—have “left YAF in a state of uncertainty regarding its ability to operate on an equal footing with other student organizations.”

A response letter sent by attorney Matthew Besmer on behalf of the school states, “The District does not have a policy that permits chalking on campus. The District may develop a chalking policy in the future, but until it does, chalking is not permitted.”

In a follow-up letter, Becker stated that the “absence of a policy does not equate to a prohibition,” and the college’s position was “legally unsound.”

Becker also stated that should YAF chalk again and the college take disciplinary action, the group will “pursue all available legal remedies.”

Thus far, the college has cooperated with YAF in securing a venue for an upcoming speaker. According to Becker, however, there is an ongoing issue with what he called the “defamatory label of vandal,” which the school has not yet revoked.

What’s more, another student has also spoken out about the group’s actions. A student-led petition with nearly 600 signatures calls for “accountability and reform” from YAF.

Petition creator Yocelyn Torres stated in the petition she “personally witnessed” members of YAF engaging in “hate speech” on campus. She confirmed with The Fix that this comment was “directly related to the chalking incident.”

She also told The Fix that the chalking, “Isn’t 100% necessarily hate speech,” but that YAF “has an extensive reputation of purposefully being offensive.”

“I am demanding that the students involved in this are held accountable,” she said.

According to Torres, the chalking took place as a result of the college preventing YAF from putting up posters for their event titled, “Immigrants are not Oppressed.” Torres said “it was the directly offensive title that prevented them from putting posters up.”

“This type of behavior qualifies as hate speech,” she said.

However, O’Hara told The Fix, “The school said nothing about the event’s name.” He also said that the left-leaning ideas on his campus “do not align with those of the American people, especially those of the community of Visalia, California.”

“I see it as my duty as an American to defend my fellow students’ rights on campus,” he said.

MORE: Conservative student under investigation for pro-Israel pamphlets

IMAGE CREDIT AND CAPTION: Young American’s for Freedom standing by chalk messages at College of Sequoias; YAF

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