Students at Ohio University have faced repeated harassment recently for their involvement with Turning Point USA.
During a campus tabling event, some students posted comments on the college social media application YikYak, screenshots of which were provided to TPUSA by the chapter leaders. These posts included views of TPUSA and the school’s chapter, often hostile and disapproving of the organization.
“TPUSA at Baker [Student Center] is embarrassing as f***,” one person commented under the name of “Ohio University.”
This individual repeatedly encouraged others to harass the TPUSA members who were tabling. Others said that those who support the current US presidential administration do not deserve to live, while some promoted violence against the chapter.
“If you support trump/tpusa you are genuinely a horrible person with no respect for human rights and I sincerely hope you radicalize yourself before it’s too late,” the same person under the “Ohio University” account said.
The table had a board allowing students to post statements about the meaning of freedom. One opposite-minded student posted a statement disdaining TPUSA, capitalism, and Charlie Kirk’s passing. (See image below).
“We set up a table outside of the Baker Student Center on campus and had the intention of having a successful activism event,” a chapter member told TPUSA about the incidents. “We had numerous hostile encounters, including people yelling at us from cars, mocking Charlie getting shot in the neck while walking by, people stating that ‘Charlie had it coming,’ etc. We had people arguing with us, which we welcomed and tried to pivot the conversation to a more civil tone. We were seeing numerous awful things being said about us on Yik Yak but we stayed tabling despite the hostility. However, we eventually had to call OU PD when we saw that there was a threat of gun violence on the school’s Yik Yak directed at us.”
