{"id":1413,"date":"2011-10-11T22:58:35","date_gmt":"2011-10-12T02:58:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/valdosta-state-students-defend-their-right-of-free-speech.html"},"modified":"2011-10-11T22:58:35","modified_gmt":"2011-10-12T02:58:35","slug":"valdosta-state-students-defend-their-right-of-free-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/valdosta-state-students-defend-their-right-of-free-speech.html","title":{"rendered":"Valdosta State Students defend their right of free speech"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/GuD-KpHRSso\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   src=\"http:\/\/i4.ytimg.com\/vi\/GuD-KpHRSso\/default.jpg\"\n><\/a><br \/>\nCampus authorities tried getting students to move away from the University<br \/>\nCenter where<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2011\/09\/student-protesters-greet-ga-gov-nathan-deal-vsu-16-sep-2011.html\"><br \/>\nGovernor Nathan Deal was having a luncheon.<\/a><br \/>\nThe students stood their ground.<\/p>\n<p>\nHere&#8217;s<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/GuD-KpHRSso\"><br \/>\nthe video.<\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GuD-KpHRSso\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n<br \/>\n<small><br \/>\nProtesting Gov. Nathan Deal at Valdosta State University (VSU), 16 September 2011.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nVideos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.<br \/>\n<\/small><\/p>\n<p>\nThe students had been standing on the sidewalk in front of the<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/98706376@N00\/6154202040\/sizes\/s\/in\/set-72157627686021808\/\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   src=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6090\/6154202040_9a2a697eaa_m.jpg\"><\/a><br \/>\nUniversity Center.<br \/>\nThe press asked them to come stand by the fountain for a photo-op.<br \/>\nBut it was hot there.<br \/>\nThe press had gone inside to set up for the press conference.<br \/>\nThe students came back across the street for shade.<\/p>\n<p>\nWhen the students were standing in the shade by the University Center entrance,<br \/>\ncampus security came out and said<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/98706376@N00\/6154221342\/sizes\/s\/in\/set-72157627686021808\/\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   src=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6167\/6154221342_883eae5563_m.jpg\"><\/a><br \/>\nthe students didn&#8217;t have permission to be there; they should<br \/>\nstand on sidewalk.<br \/>\nThey asked who was in charge.<br \/>\nKathryn Grant said she was the leader.<br \/>\nShe handed security the sheet of paper she had handed out to students,<br \/>\nand told the security people<br \/>\nthat the First Amendment said they did have the right.<br \/>\nSecurity said, You&#8217;re not a student.<br \/>\nShe said, Yes I am.<br \/>\nThey said, You had to get permission.<br \/>\nShe said she was in class that morning.<br \/>\nThey said that was not an excuse, and the students needed to have something.<\/p>\n<p>\nBobbi Anne Hancock spoke up, and said, We have the right to be here;<br \/>\nwe tried to have the right permission, but<br \/>\nwe only found out yesterday the governor was going to be here.<br \/>\nAustin Batchelor Sullivan said, I only found out last night.<br \/>\nThere was more back and forth.<\/p>\n<p>\nMeanwhile, one security person went inside.<br \/>\nHe came back out, motioned to the security person talking to the students,<br \/>\nand whispered in his ear.<br \/>\nHe then said, Dr. Levy said it&#8217;s OK for you to be here,<br \/>\nbut you can&#8217;t bring the signs in when<br \/>\nyou come to the press conference.<br \/>\nDr. Louis H. Levy is the<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.valdosta.edu\/news\/releases\/levy.042711\/\"><br \/>\ninterim president of VSU.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\nAfter that, a girl came out from the building,<br \/>\ndressed in black pants, bow tie,<br \/>\napparently working as caterer with Student Services.<br \/>\nShe identified herself as from the student newspaper, the Spectator.<br \/>\nThe students were happy to talk to her.<\/p>\n<p>\n<a href=\"\/blog\/category\/vsu-16-september-2011\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   src=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6183\/6153790223_9776554417_m.jpg\"><\/a><br \/>\nMore about this event in <a href=\"\/blog\/category\/vsu-16-september-2011\">this category.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n-gretchen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Campus authorities tried getting students to move away from the University Center where Governor Nathan Deal was having a luncheon. The students stood their ground. Here&#8217;s the video. Protesting Gov. Nathan Deal at Valdosta State University (VSU), 16 September 2011. Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange. The students had been [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,40,15,70,8,2,72,20,3659],"tags":[3663,3661,3660,3537,1273,3532,407,8701,8730,3662,3530,7,46,3330,1837,1915,6,1175,8743],"class_list":["post-1413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-community","category-education","category-ethics","category-georgia","category-government","category-incarceration","category-law","category-vsu-16-september-2011","tag-austin-batchelor-sullivan","tag-bobbi-anne-hancock","tag-death-penalty","tag-erin-hurley","tag-first-amendment","tag-free-speech","tag-george-boston-rhynes","tag-georgia","tag-incarceration","tag-kathryn-grant","tag-louis-levy","tag-lowndes-county","tag-nathan-deal","tag-protesters","tag-students","tag-troy-davis","tag-valdosta","tag-valdosta-state-university","tag-vsu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1413\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}