On Monday, activist students and professors at Orange Coast College in California stormed the administration building in protest of the school's College Republicans group, demanding that the group be punished for releasing emails and documents which show one professor vowing to take the matter into her own hands if OCC did not.
College Republicans a threat to the 'safe spaces' of liberal students
According to documents legally obtained and released by the College Republicans, Professor Jessica Alabi emailed university president Dennis Harkins about her distaste for the College Republicans, and later prevented Republican students from attending an OCC event, calling them a "threat" to the "safe space" of other students.
After these documents were released, activist students, along with some faculty members, stormed the OCC administration building in defense of Alabi, according to Peter Van Hooris, a reporter for Campus Reform.
Tensions between conservatives and liberals on campus have heightened ever since the OCC College Republicans made headlines for releasing a classroom recording of a professor calling the election of Donald Trump an "act of terrorism." The student who released the audio recording, Caleb O'Neil, was promptly suspended by Orange Coast College. The professor who made the remark, Olga Stable-Cox, was later honored with a "Faculty Member of the Year" award.
Student Republicans a frequent target of hate at OCC
In March, a high-ranking member of the OCC College Republicans group, Joshua Recalde-Martinez, was targeted for his vocal support of O'Neil. After graffiti was painted on several campus buildings-- reading "F--- Joshua Martinez", "punch fascists" and "OCC Young Republicans= Fascists," Martinez filed a civil rights violation complaint.
A knife was also found next to one of the threatening messages, and even though the perpetrator was captured by surveillance camera, the investigation was closed without an arrest.
“I am afraid that OCC sought to hide the incident, due to the recent incident I was involved in at the college involving exposing a professor who went on a rant in class” said Recalde-Martinez to Campus Reform in March.
“I don’t feel safe on campus, and don’t feel my family members are safe on campus either.”
Alabi, a gender studies professor at OCC, has also become a favorite target of college conservatives. “Professor Alabi deserves to be held accountable for her bigoted, non-inclusive actions towards myself and other conservative students on our campus,” said Vincent Wetzel to Campus Reform last week. Wetzel, who is president of the OCC College Republicans, added, “She is a disgrace to our school."
