The University of Pittsburgh Demands Conservative Students Pay Damage and Security Fees After Leftists Riot and Protest Their Event 

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Disclaimer:  This article may contain the personal views and opinions of the author.

Welcome to American universities in 2023 where conservatives are not allowed to have a voice and snowflakes are to be sheltered from dissenting opinions. 

The College Republican chapter and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) sponsored a debate featuring Daily Wire host Michael Knowles and BASED Politics co-founder Brad Polumbo on the topic of transgenderism. 

The debate was titled “Should Transgenderism Be Regulated by Law?” 

The students in attendance were offered the opportunity to ask questions and the debate was to be followed by a meet-and-greet. 

Before the debate was to take place, many of the officials at the university voiced their opposition to the event and encouraged students to protest. 

And protest they did! A crowd of more than 250 protestors set off smoke bombs and fireworks. They burned an effigy of Knowles, one of the most polite people you would ever meet. 

The protests and riots resulted in thousands of dollars of damage at the university. Who should be responsible for that? 

According to the university, it’s the two groups that sponsored the event. The groups received a letter from the UPitt demanding $18,000 in security costs and damages. 

Shortly before the scheduled event, one university professor told students that “[t]he Theatre Arts department, along with many other departments, students, faculty, and staff at Pitt, strongly condemns this event and has called on the University to cancel Knowles’ appearance due to his history of spreading hate speech and inciting violence against trans people.”

When the event was to go on as scheduled, the professor egged on the students and asked them to attend “events” in response to Knowles’ “unwelcome presence on campus.”

Hundreds of rioters packed the streets and were able to get close to those attending the debate. 

“This proximity allowed the mob to throw smoke bombs and other incendiary devices into the crowd, as well as using a road flare to burn an effigy of Knowles.

“That action prevented the police from keeping the O’Hara Student Center free of threats, and it ultimately caused Pitt police to urge ISI to end the event before it concluded because the situation was ‘deteriorating,'” Alliance Defending Freedom, the group defending the sponsors of the debate, wrote in its demand letter to the university.

“It’s bad enough that the University of Pittsburgh charged ISI and College Republicans an outrageous and unconstitutional security fee simply out of fear about how others might react to a particular viewpoint,” Senior Counsel Philip A. Sechler stated.

“But it’s worse that the university also encouraged students to disrupt the event and shut it down. This is exactly the type of suppression the First Amendment forbids.

“Implementing such security fees as part of an attempt to shut down a legitimate campus event is what’s known as a ‘heckler’s veto,’ an action which unconstitutionally allows those who oppose certain speech to censor it simply by protesting it.

“We urge Pitt officials to swiftly rescind this unlawful fee and amend their policies to protect every student’s freedom of speech.”

“The university violated this sacred trust by inciting a riot that threatened the lives and liberties of students peacefully assembled to discuss and debate ideas. This dereliction of duty is unacceptable in a free society, and ISI will fight to ensure it never happens again,” ISI President Johnny Burtka said.

Is it no longer possible to have real debates on college campuses?