{"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":"<a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/GuD-KpHRSso\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   src=\"http:\/\/i4.ytimg.com\/vi\/GuD-KpHRSso\/default.jpg\"\n><\/a>\nCampus authorities tried getting students to move away from the University\nCenter where\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2011\/09\/student-protesters-greet-ga-gov-nathan-deal-vsu-16-sep-2011.html\">\nGovernor Nathan Deal was having a luncheon.<\/a>\nThe students stood their ground.\n<p>\nHere&#8217;s\n<a href=\"http:\/\/youtu.be\/GuD-KpHRSso\">\nthe video.<\/a>\n<p align=\"center\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GuD-KpHRSso\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<br>\n<small>\nProtesting Gov. Nathan Deal at Valdosta State University (VSU), 16 September 2011.\n<br>\nVideos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.\n<\/small>\n<p>\nThe students had been standing on the sidewalk in front of the\n\n<!--more-->\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/98706376@N00\/6154202040\/sizes\/s\/in\/set-72157627686021808\/\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   src=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6090\/6154202040_9a2a697eaa_m.jpg\"><\/a>\nUniversity Center.\nThe press asked them to come stand by the fountain for a photo-op.\nBut it was hot there.\nThe press had gone inside to set up for the press conference.\nThe students came back across the street for shade.\n<p>\nWhen the students were standing in the shade by the University Center entrance,\ncampus security came out and said\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/98706376@N00\/6154221342\/sizes\/s\/in\/set-72157627686021808\/\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   src=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6167\/6154221342_883eae5563_m.jpg\"><\/a>\nthe students didn&#8217;t have permission to be there; they should\nstand on sidewalk.\nThey asked who was in charge.\nKathryn Grant said she was the leader.\nShe handed security the sheet of paper she had handed out to students,\nand told the security people\nthat the First Amendment said they did have the right.\nSecurity said, You&#8217;re not a student.\nShe said, Yes I am.\nThey said, You had to get permission.\nShe said she was in class that morning.\nThey said that was not an excuse, and the students needed to have something.\n<p>\nBobbi Anne Hancock spoke up, and said, We have the right to be here;\nwe tried to have the right permission, but\nwe only found out yesterday the governor was going to be here.\nAustin Batchelor Sullivan said, I only found out last night.\nThere was more back and forth.\n<p>\nMeanwhile, one security person went inside.\nHe came back out, motioned to the security person talking to the students,\nand whispered in his ear.\nHe then said, Dr. Levy said it&#8217;s OK for you to be here,\nbut you can&#8217;t bring the signs in when\nyou come to the press conference.\nDr. Louis H. Levy is the\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.valdosta.edu\/news\/releases\/levy.042711\/\">\ninterim president of VSU.<\/a>\n<p>\nAfter that, a girl came out from the building,\ndressed in black pants, bow tie,\napparently working as caterer with Student Services.\nShe identified herself as from the student newspaper, the Spectator.\nThe students were happy to talk to her.\n<p>\n<a href=\"\/blog\/category\/vsu-16-september-2011\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   src=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6183\/6153790223_9776554417_m.jpg\"><\/a>\nMore about this event in <a href=\"\/blog\/category\/vsu-16-september-2011\">this category.<\/a>\n<p>\n-gretchen\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"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;]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"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"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-mN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_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}]}}