Community college investigating campus officer following incident on Meramec campus

By Alexis Zotos

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    ST. LOUIS, Missouri (KMOV) — Students on the St. Louis Community College Meramec campus say on Thursday they felt threatened and uncomfortable by a man livestreaming and spewing hateful language.

Now, campus officials say they are investigating an interaction between an officer and students during the event.

Zainab Ahmad was walking to class when she saw a man live streaming in the main campus quad.

“The main target was Muslim students, but he was attacking the queer community on campus, he was making extremely anti-Semitic remarks as well, and campus police were just standing by. They didn’t intervene,” said Ahmad.

The man was live streaming to a YouTube channel called Kingdom Reconcilers. It shows similar live streaming events on other college campuses. The man spoke for more than two hours. Yelling things at students and also responding to questions.

Ahmad said there are oftentimes people handing out flyers or speaking in the quad.

“We’re told to not engage with them if we’re not comfortable, but this particular individual, it felt like hate speech. It felt very targeted. He actually started yelling at me as I was walking by,” she said.

Another student who asked not to be identified out of concern for his safety said he walked up to a campus officer and asked if there was anything that could be done.

‘He told me if I don’t like it, I can go back to where I came from,” said the student.

Ahmad said the comment from campus police was shocking.

“We have campus police who are literally there to protect us. Not only are they not protecting us, they’re escalating the situation and participating in the same discriminatory behavior,” said Ahmad.

Now, STLCC said they are investigating. They shared this statement with First Alert 4.

“We are aware of the allegations regarding an interaction with an STLCC police officer and our students. This occurred when an individual purporting to be a member of a religious organization visited the campus to exercise their free speech rights.

“While the College recognizes and respects individuals’ rights to express themselves as guaranteed by the First Amendment and the Campus Free Expression Act in Missouri, the College does not condone harassing or discriminatory behavior by members of the public, students, or College employees.

“STLCC HR is actively investigating the alleged misconduct by the campus police officer.”

The campus president also sent an email to students saying, “The alleged behavior by a staff member is not tolerated and does not reflect our values.”

The campus said they will hold planning sessions to discuss the issue of free expression.

“Our administrators have met us with telling us that this is protected under the First Amendment but there has to be some kind of limit,” said Ahmad.

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