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‘I have family who don’t look like you who are triggered … I will be very candid with you‘
The coordinator of student-government programs at Oklahoma State University allegedly reprimanded a student who gave a small tribute to Charlie Kirk at a meeting just hours after Kirk’s assassination.
According to the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, Josh Wilson, a member of the OSU student government and debate society, “took a few moments to speak to fellow students” at a Student Government Association meeting that had been scheduled the day of Kirk’s murder.
“Wilson’s Sept. 10 speech contained no references to Trump, nor did it advocate for the election of any political figure or call for support of any political party,” according to the report.
“Instead, Wilson called Kirk ‘a father, a husband, a devout Christian, and a shining light for so many,” and “recalled that during Kirk’s April visit to OSU, Kirk was able to ‘provoke discussion and dialogue among countless students on this campus.’”
But during the talk, Wilson wore a hat emblazoned with “45 47,” given to him by Kirk a few months prior.
This apparently did not sit well with OSU’s Melisa Echols, who later informed Wilson his hat could “trigger” some students.
“As a person who doesn’t look like you and has not had the same lived experience as you, I have family who don’t look like you who are triggered—and I will be very candid with you—who are triggered by those hats and by that side,” Echols said.
Ironically, Wilson (pictured) is Native American — a member of the Cherokee Nation.
Echols also claimed wearing the hat was a violation of SGA rules (“partisanship”), but the school itself told the OCPA that, although the student government “has a nonpartisan tradition,” there are “no official policies to restrict partisan expression,” and the SGA “has not enacted or enforced such a policy.”
Echols did not respond to the OCPA’s request for comment.
According to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), “as Wilson continued to push back, Echols told him that ‘yes, but’ could not be the response to her assertions because such a response does not indicate a ‘learned lesson’ on [his] part.”
Echols noted the school year would “be difficult” for Wilson if he kept questioning her.
“The power differential between university administrators and students is significant,” FIRE wrote in a letter to Oklahoma State President Jim Hess. “When an administrator with disciplinary authority demands a meeting with a student representative about his or her protected speech, the student is likely to infer an implicit threat of discipline.
“Such a demand strongly suggests that a student’s actions were problematic, and they may accordingly self-censor.”
UPDATE: In an Oct. 12 email statement, OSU Vice President of Student Affairs Brent Marsh told The College Fix that “the position of Oklahoma State University on freedom of speech is unchanged and crystal clear: All OSU students have the right to speak their minds on all of our campuses.”
He added “All staff charged with supporting student groups have received direct clarification about our policies and our unwavering commitment to free speech and our expectation that every student can fully express themselves.”
MORE: Only 9 Republican professors found across 9 humanities departments at Oklahoma State U.
