BY: JACOB POLITTE
Managing Editor
Over the past week, The Montage has covered two separate incidents involving a religious protestor who visited campus and was verbally combative with students. The protestor, who livestreams his visits on a YouTube channel called “Kingdom Reconcilers” attracted a large crowd and elicited reactions from the student body with anti-Semitic and anti-LGBTQ remarks for over two hours on Thursday, April 11 and for at least 90 minutes on Monday, April 15.
The man, as shown by his YouTube channel, travels around the country to various colleges. On Tuesday, he was on the campus of Kent State University, and on Wednesday, he traveled to the University of Cincinnati. Also on his stream from Wednesday, there were some commenters expressing support for a return to the Meramec campus.
In response to these events, the college scheduled forums on the Meramec campus to address the situation, but also said that they were unable to remove the protestor from campus as his speech was protected by a 2015 Missouri law called the Campus Free Expression Act.
Adjacent to these events, at least one campus police officer is under investigation. This was confirmed by the college in a statement after the officer, confirmed by witnesses (but not by the college) to be Officer Faulstich, was alleged to have told a student concerned about the protestor “If you don’t like it, go somewhere else” and “If you don’t like it, go back to your own country.”
In addition, a second officer, alleged to be Officer Ed Ucinski, is alleged to have told the same student, “He can say whatever the f**k he wants.”
The students’ account of events was posted online and can be read below:
The Montage is hard at work on a series of pieces that cover the entire scope of this evolving situation, and is in the process of speaking with many of those involved and gathering more information. We will continue to post updates on our social media channels as the situation develops.
In the interim, those with any thoughts and/or witness accounts are encouraged to send them to meramecmontage@gmail.com before Thursday, April 25. Please send your thoughts with your full name and an indication of your role on the campus; they may be featured in our May 2 issue.
