COMMENTARY
It’s rare enough to find a college student engaged enough in politics to start asking questions, and rarer still to find one willing to confront elected officials with those questions directly.
Nicholas Saucier was one of those students. In October of last year, Saucier confronted Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy about new gun control legislation during a public forum at Asnuntuck Community College (ACC) in Enfield, CT. After Saucier followed Malloy to his car to continue the discussion – video recording the exchange all the while – campus security and ACC President James Lombella decided to escort Saucier off-campus, ultimately charging him with harassment, threats, and failing to “demonstrate good citizenship” by violating what the college viewed as applicable “federal, state, or other laws.” Saucier was then suspended.
ACC tried to pressure Saucier to plead to the charges and undergo ‘counseling’, but he held fast and requested a formal hearing in front of administrators to prove his innocence. Rather than let him play his exculpatory video, the spineless administrators found him guilty of the charges based on nonexistent evidence. Thankfully his suspension was lifted in the end (albeit under threat of expulsion for any further exercise of his free speech rights).
That should have been the end of it, but apparently ACC wasn’t done proving its steadfast dedication to censorship. Six months later, when the college was further questioned about its treatment of Saucier over Facebook, it began to delete every negative or skeptical post without explanation. After students and a blogger began to notice this whitewashing, ACC took down its Facebook page altogether.
These actions ought to earn ACC universal condemnation. At the very least, we will give it a Muzzle for suppressing free speech both on- and offline.