“Use your body as a shield … if necessary.”
Oklahoma State University (OSU) students who organized a protest against the Turning Point USA (TPUSA) chapter event hosting the Oklahoma Superintendent, Ryan Walters, urged white protesters to use their bodies as human shields for students belonging to minority groups.
On Tuesday, TPUSA obtained information regarding plans to protest Walter’s appearance at the public university campus. In one document created by protesters titled “Protest Etiquette for OSU events,” students wrote, “If you are white or otherwise visibly privileged, you have an obligation to protect POC [people of color] and queer members of our community.”
The document went on to urge these “visibly privileged” protesters to “Use your body as a shield between cops and counter protesters if necessary.”
Walters has earned the ire of progressives in education after speaking out against an Oklahoma school principal who moonlights as a drag queen. The State Superintendent has also been an outspoken advocate for parental rights and transparency in education.
Protesters at OSU began handing out fliers reading, “Walters’ rhetoric fosters an environment where trans individuals are beaten to death,” and directly blamed him for the death of Oklahoma 16-year-old Nex Benedict, who identified as non-binary.
Wednesday night, protesters gathered at the event location on campus as scheduled. Those who reserved seats were allowed into the event room to ask questions; however, according to video footage captured during Walters’ speech, it appears that these students were primarily heckling the State Superintendent and disrupting the event.
Turning Point USA’s regional field representative overseeing the event said that protesters “interrupted the entire time,” and that “no one could hear what [Walters] was saying.”
The representative said that though the number of conservative students far outweighed the number of protesters, “they were downed out by a small handful of people. [The protesters] stated that they wouldn’t jeer or heckle fellow students, but as soon as the chapter president started to speak … they started screaming.”
