Protesters exercised free speech rights

By Jonathan McFadden

mcfaddenj@thejohnsonian.com

: Street preachers visited campus Wednesday, Oct. 13, causing many students to form a crowd around the protest. The visitors held up signs with pictures of aborted babies, angering some students to the point of yelling. Photos contributed by Joshua Demarest.The street preachers who aroused a student protest on Byrnes’ front lawn Wednesday were not given a permit, said Frank Ardaiolo, vice president for student life.

Ardaiolo said the preachers asked to set up in the campus’ free speech zone, which in accordance with Winthrop’s assembly policy, allowed them to demonstrate at Byrnes without prior written approval.

The preachers originally set up in the concourse between the DiGiorgio Campus Center and West Center. They were moved to Byrnes when Ardaiolo personally informed them the campus center area was not a space designated as a “free speech zone.”

The preachers said two students told them the campus center was a free speech zone.

Ardaiolo said he was not concerned with the impact of the preachers’ message.

He said students need to be exposed to all types of ideas and manners of expression to liberate them from pre-conceived biases in their own thinking and ideas.

This is one of the prime reasons for the existence of the ‘HMXP 102: Who Am I?’ course, Ardaiolo said.

Shawn Holes, who goes by Shawn the Baptist, has a family ministry called Luke Ten Two. Photos contributed by Joshua Demarest.