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Panel Calls For ‘Paradigm Shift’ In Virginia School-to-Prison Pipeline

VCU CNS | March 24, 2021

Topics: Commonwealth institute for Fiscal Analysis, department of youth rehabilitation services, Jennifer McClellan, Legal Aid Justice Center, redlining, RISE for Youth, Rodney Robinson, school to prison pipeline, University of Richmond, Virginia commonwealth university, Virginia Poverty Law Center

University of Richmond’s School of Law held a six-hour symposium recently about the school-to-prison pipeline and ways students of color are kept at a disadvantage by zero tolerance policies and overpolicing of school grounds.

Schools have become places of trauma for students of color and help reinforce centuries of systemic racism by driving students into the criminal justice system, according to speakers at a recent University of Richmond symposium. 

The UR School of Law hosted a six-hour event via Zoom with four presentations, nine panelists, and over 200 attendees. The event featured UR law students, educators, social justice advocates, and activists. 

Suspension and expulsion are used disproportionately against Black students, other students of color, and those with disabilities, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Those punishments, along with arrests at school, often lead to students having a criminal record, according to the NAACP. The trend is known as the school-to-prison pipeline.

Julie McConnell, a UR law professor, said the origins of the school-to-prison pipeline is decades old. McConnell is the director of the university’s Children’s Defense Clinic, a program where law students represent indigent children in court.

School to Prison Pipeline Symposium panelists: Valerie L’Herrou (pictured top left), Allison Gilbreath (pictured top right), Doron Samuel-Siegel (pictured middle left), Kevin Woodson (pictured middle right), Cassie Powell (pictured bottom)

The school-to-prison pipeline has been an issue for many years, but it began to take hold during the “superpredator era” in the 1990s, following incidents such as the Columbine High School shooting, McConnell said. The superpredator theory centered around fear there was going to be a wave of violent kids threatening communities and schools. The theory popularized strict zero tolerance policies in schools.

“We would automatically suspend and expel kids who got in trouble in school for very minor offenses in many cases,” McConnell said. 

She referenced a 2015 incident in South Carolina when a school resource officer tossed a student across a classroom after she refused to surrender her cellphone.

Zero tolerance policies mandate predetermined punishments for certain offenses in schools, including the possession of a weapon, alcohol, or drugs, according to Shared Justice. Minor offenses often punishable by suspension or expulsion include disorderly conduct and insubordination.

McConnell and other speakers discussed how punitive policies often drive students into incarceration, as some offenses previously handled within schools are now dealt with by juvenile courts. McConnell said suspending minors results in higher rates of dropout, mental health problems, delinquency and substance abuse issues. 

Virginia lawmakers have worked to return punishment back to the schools. Sen. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, sponsored two measures that passed the Virginia General Assembly last year. Students cannot be charged with disorderly conduct during school, on buses, or at school-sponsored events. School principals no longer have to report student acts that constitute a misdemeanor to law enforcement, such as an assault on school property, including on a bus or at a school-sponsored event.

Valerie Slater, executive director for the RISE for Youth Coalition, said there are disproportionate rates of suspension in Virginia. RISE for Youth is a campaign focused on dismantling the youth prison model.

Black youths from ages 15 to 17 made up 21 percent of the state’s overall population during the 2016-2017 school year, but they accounted for 57 percent of youths suspended statewide, according to a 2019 Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis and RISE for Youth report. Black teens also made up 49 percent of Virginia minors reported to juvenile courts by school authorities and 54 percent of minors detained in local jails, according to the same report.

The country’s history of racial bias and discriminatory practices have enabled the school-to-prison pipeline, speakers said.

One panel focused on Richmond’s history of segregated housing trends, such as the illegal practice of redlining. That is when creditworthy applicants are denied housing loans based on the applicants’ race or neighborhood where they lived. White students as a result were concentrated in wealthier suburban areas and Black students in underprivileged urban centers, said panelist Genevieve Siegel-Hawley, an associate professor of educational leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University.

“We can easily see the vestiges of this history just in the way that we assign students to schools,” said panelist Kathy Mendes, a research assistant at the Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis. 

Mendes said children of color from under-resourced areas often attend schools with insufficient resources. 

Panelist Rachael Deane, legal director of Legal Aid Justice Center’s JustChildren program, said communities of color are “incredibly over-policed.” Community policing of these areas spills into schools, exposing children of color to constant surveillance by school resource officers, Deane said. 

Heavy policing in schools does not effectively prevent juvenile delinquency, speakers said. Zero tolerance policies fail to consider the mental well-being of disadvantaged children. Children with behavioral problems may experience external stressors such as high rates of neighborhood crime, domestic violence, and extreme poverty.

“If you never got into the issue of why a student was fighting, then you are doing nothing but delaying another fight after suspending them,” said Rodney Robinson, winner of the 2019 National Teacher of the Year award. Robinson is a 19-year teaching veteran of Richmond Public Schools.

Rodney Robinson, 2019 National Teacher of the Year. Photo via Council of Chief State School Officers

Schools need to replace school resource officers with mental health counselors, and teach students how to cope with trauma rather than driving them out of schools, Robinson said. 

Robinson said he witnessed the severity of the school-to-prison pipeline issue while teaching convicted juveniles at Virgie Binford Education Center. He said there is a need for reformative school programs. 

“To me it wasn’t about the school-to-prison pipeline, it’s a school-to-cemetery pipeline,” Robinson said. “Because if you’re failing these kids, and they’re not graduating, and they’re ending up in such horrible conditions, then eventually they will end up a victim of street violence.”

Educator bias against students of color needs to be eliminated, Robinson said. He said teachers should understand how their privilege may affect how they view students.

Valerie L’Herrou, a Virginia Poverty Law Center staff attorney, said she feels “hopeful” about recent racial justice protests. L’Herrou said the protests showed more people are open to reexamining their privilege and role in maintaining racist structures. 

Siegel-Hawley and other speakers proposed altering schools’ rezoning criteria in order to fully desegregate Richmond communities. 

Slater encouraged leaders to focus on the “roots” over the “symptoms” of the school-to-prison pipeline, and to create programs to permanently rehabilitate children and communities. 

Educational funding needs to be equally distributed throughout the commonwealth, Slater said. She also proposed expanding the definition of school resource officers to include other forms of support such as credible messengers. Credible messengers are individuals who have passed through the justice system, transformed their lives and provide preventative support to at-risk youth, according to the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services. 

“It is time for a paradigm shift in Virginia,” Slater said. “It is time to realize that a healthy, thriving community is the greatest deterrent to justice system involvement.”

Written by Christina Amano Dolan, Capital News Service. Top Photo: “Prison Bars Jail Cell” by JobsForFelonsHub, CC BY 2.0, via CNS. 

COVID-19 Cluster Sparks Quick Conversion of VCU Honors College Into Isolation Unit

VCU CNS | August 31, 2020

Topics: coronavirus, COVID-19, education during the pandemic, Isolation units, vcu, VCU Hono, VCU Honors College, Virginia commonwealth university

As VCU’s fall semester began, they set aside 54 isolation units on campus, but two weeks in, there are already over 100 COVID-19 cases at the university. Now, with very little notice, three floors of the Honors College are being converted to isolation units as well.

Virginia Commonwealth University will convert three floors of a building that houses classrooms and workspaces into an isolation space for students who test positive for COVID-19, according to a university spokesperson. The number of positive cases on campus has more than tripled since the university began reporting its cases online Aug. 20.

The plan calls for converting the seventh floor of the Honors College building immediately, followed by the fifth and sixth floors as needed — creating up to 160 additional spaces for students who need to stay in isolation. 

As of Thursday, there are 110 reported active cases at the university — 98 students and 12 employees. According to the dashboard, a cluster of 44 positive cases from the VCU Athletics department “necessitated the need for additional isolation space.”

“Students could move in as soon as this week, but the exact day will depend on need,” Jennifer Malat, dean of College of Humanities and Sciences, said in an email to employees that was shared with The Commonwealth Times, the independent, student-run newspaper at VCU.

Photo by Jon Mirador

Isolating students will use the rear entrance to the Honors College. They will access their rooms by the rear elevator, according to the email, “and will not need to leave their rooms until they are cleared for release.”

“I recognize the pandemic has been an especially challenging time for those who work in the Honors College building,” Malat stated in the email. “I appreciate your patience as we help to create a space that will help prevent students who have tested positive for coronavirus from interacting with the general population.”

The residence hall Gladding Residence Center III, which has a capacity of 54 isolation units, was at risk of running out of space, a VCU spokesperson said.

“The cluster of 44 student cases rapidly reduced VCU’s capacity to offer isolation housing in GRC III,” university spokesperson Michael Porter said in an email. “A decision to use the upper floors of the Honors College was made Tuesday evening after VCU Health confirmed the space was not currently needed for treating non-COVID-19 patients.”

Porter said deans and chairs began notifying their departments about the Honors College conversion Wednesday morning after the decision was made. All classes in the Honors College are being relocated, Porter said, and VCU is looking at relocating offices and labs in the building.

“The change will have no impact on workspace or access to offices or labs,” Porter said in an email. “Staff and faculty will not be interacting with COVID-19 positive students in the workplace.”

Porter said faculty in the physics department, housed in the Honors College, are discussing the impacts of the conversion but have not decided yet to move classes online.

In the Honors College building, students will receive food and medication via delivery, and employees will monitor the building entrance. The building’s HVAC system is under maintenance so that there are no pathways for air to enter into the lower floors from the upper floors, Porter said.  

The email from Malat was shared by an employee who works in the Honors College building and wished to remain anonymous. On Wednesday, they said they saw maintenance crews preparing rooms for conversion. The employee said they later received the announcement indirectly and felt it was “as an afterthought.”

“We are, in my unit, terrified,” the employee said. “They prepared this quietly and secretly, and waited until the last possible minute to inform anyone.”

Photo by Jon Mirador

Porter did not respond directly when asked why employees were not informed going into the semester that the pivot to use the space could happen.

VCU and VCU Health System prepared the Honors College in March to be used as a potential overflow hospital for non-COVID-19 patients. Student belongings were removed from the building without their knowledge and moved to a nearby storage facility. 

The employee said that in the university’s decision to plan another conversion without consulting employees, “they decided our health and safety doesn’t matter.”

“We are underpaid, understaffed, overworked, and now they take it further, and in the process, try to keep secret the need for MORE students to” isolate, the employee said in a direct message. “They are risking the health of staff, of students, of faculty.”

Written by Hannah Eason and Andrew Ringle, Capital News Service. Top Photo by Jon Mirador.

CNS Editor’s note: This article was written by staff members of The Commonwealth Times, the independent student newspaper at VCU, which originally published the article.

Virginia Colleges React To Coronavirus Pandemic

VCU CNS | March 12, 2020

Topics: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Christopher Newport University, coronavirus, James Madison University, Longwood University, Norfolk State University, Old Dominion University, Pandemic, Radford University, University of Richmond, University Of Virginia, vcu, Virginia colleges, Virginia commonwealth university, Virginia Department of Health, Virginia State University, Virginia Tech, William & Mary

Extending spring break, cancelling campus events, and holding classes online are some of the ways colleges in Virginia are attempting to slow the spread of the coronavirus within their student body, faculty, and staff.

Virginia colleges and universities are extending spring break and adapting online classes amid the new coronavirus — along with more than 100 universities nationwide and still counting — after the flu-like illness was declared a world pandemic on Wednesday.

There are nine presumptive positive COVID-19 cases in Virginia, according to the Virginia Department of Health. Most of them are in Northern Virginia, with one confirmed case in Central Virginia.

Professors are quickly pivoting to get material online, and some schools, like Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, are offering resources to help teachers adjust. Many students have expressed concern over lack of digital equipment and internet access.

Most universities are cancelling events with more than 100 attendees and have online resources for students to access updated information. Many colleges have canceled in-person classes, but faculty and staff will continue to work on campus. Below is a sample of universities that have changed schedules to help prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. 

Outbreak response in action: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) staff support the COVID-19 response in the CDC’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC). Photo from the Centers for Disease Control, used with permission.

James Madison University will extend their spring break until March 23 and will teach online classes until April 5. JMU President Jonathan Alger said in a release that students will be updated on the remainder of the semester on March 27.

Longwood University will be closed until March 18, cancelling in-person classes and events following a presumptive positive diagnosis for a Longwood student on Wednesday. In a release, Longwood President W. Taylor Reveley said faculty would continue to prepare for the possibility of online classes.

Norfolk State University extended spring break until March 23 and will teach classes online until April 6. University residences will reopen March 22.

Old Dominion University will resume classes online on March 23 after an extended spring break. ODU President John Broderick said in a statement posted on Facebook that the school would monitor the situation and reassess on April 6. 

Radford University extended its spring break for an additional week and plans to teach online until April 17, according to the university’s website. The university – as most academic institutions are doing – asked that faculty, staff and students complete voluntary travel declaration forms.

“The information will be shared with local health officials as needed on a case-by-case basis,” Radford President Brian Hemphill said in a release. “For those who traveled, the University may ask individuals to self-monitor or self-isolate for two weeks, depending upon the locations that were visited and the activities that were engaged in.”

University of Richmond extended spring break, cancelling classes from March 16-20, and will hold online classes until at least April 3.

The school’s website states that students with extenuating circumstances, such as international students, can submit a petition to stay in on-campus housing, although access to student services and facilities will be limited.

University of Virginia students will also move to online courses starting on March 19, according to a release from U.Va. President James Ryan posted on Wednesday.

“We will not be holding classes on Grounds for the foreseeable future, quite possibly through the end of the semester,” Ryan said in a release. “We will reassess after April 5 at the earliest and periodically after that date.”

Photo via VCU-CNS

Virginia Commonwealth University announced Wednesday that it will extend its spring break for an additional week. When the semester resumes on March 23, classes will be taught remotely for the “foreseeable future.” Classrooms are expected to use digital tools such as Blackboard, videoconferencing and online programs. 

The release from VCU President Michael Rao said details regarding on-campus housing, student services and dining plans are forthcoming.

“I also want to take this opportunity to thank you for being mindful and respectful of others during this outbreak, which is not limited to any particular age group, geographic region, nationality, ethnicity or race,” Rao said.

Virginia Tech’s spring break is extended to March 23, with a transition to online courses for the remainder of the semester. All events with over 100 people are cancelled through at least April 30, though May commencement plans are still in place. 

“Our campus administrators, public health experts, and community leaders have been continuously engaged in monitoring the situation in Blacksburg, across Virginia, and around the world,” a release stated. “In consultation with our partners in the Virginia Department of Health, we are adopting a range of principle-based actions, effective immediately.”

William & Mary will start online classes March 23, after an extended spring break, to continue until at least April 1. University events are cancelled until April 3.

Virginia State University announced Wednesday that it will cancel or modify all scheduled events for the next 30 days. Modifications include pre packaged options in dining halls and livestreams for events, like the Mr. and Miss VSU Pageant and student government activities. Christopher Newport University took a similar approach, by rerouting study abroad plans and limiting serve-served food, according to its website. 

A few colleges remain open at this time: Liberty, Regent, and Hampton universities, and Reynolds Community College.

Transmission electron microscopic image of an isolate from the first U.S. case of COVID-19, formerly known as 2019-nCoV. The spherical viral particles, colorized blue, contain cross-sections through the viral genome, seen as black dots. Photo from the Centers for Disease Control, used with permission.

As of Wednesday, there are 938 confirmed and presumed positive COVID-19 cases in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The bulk of cases are in Washington, California and New York. The infection has caused 29 deaths in the states. Worldwide, more than 118,300 people have the infection, including over 80,900 individuals living in mainland China. The outbreak has killed 4,292, reported the World Health Organization.

For more information about COVID-19 in Virginia, visit www.vdh.virginia.gov/coronavirus.

Written by Hannah Eason, Capital News Service. Top Photo via VCU-CNS

VCU Gets In Formation With Class on Beyoncé

Christopher Brown | December 9, 2019

Topics: bell hooks, beyhive, Beyonce, beyonce class, beyonce music race fame, billboard hot 100, black history, christina sharpe, feminism, grammys, Homecoming, in the wake, lemonade, madison alexander moore, music, Netflix, richmond va, RVA, vcu, Virginia commonwealth university

A class at Virginia Commonwealth University focusing on Beyoncé is exciting students to learn about the artist’s role in feminism, African American studies, and pop culture.

Following over 20 years of Beyoncé’s music prevailing in the nationwide music scene, VCU is hosting a new course focused on the artist in its African American studies department. 

Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has produced several number one songs on the Billboard Hot 100 in addition to critically-acclaimed albums, and has received multiple Grammys for her work. Her 2016 album Lemonade became a quick pop culture phenomenon not only musically, but visually — major publications lauded the album for its personal in-depth look into Beyoncé’s life that the artist had previously never shared with the masses. 

College instructors across the country now are intertwining the artist’s legacy into lectures and elective courses that students can take for credit toward their degrees. 

VCU got into formation, and currently hosts a course on the pop artist labeled “Beyoncé: Music, Race, Fame.” Taught by professor Madison Alexander Moore, the class focuses not just on Beyoncé’s history, but also the impact she has on her community. 

“It’s not necessarily a class about Beyoncé, but a class about stardom, virtuosity, and what it takes to be a pop star in the age of Instagram and internet connectivity,” Moore said.

PHOTO: Beyoncé on Instagram

Moore uses the work of a wide variety of black feminist scholars and critics in the class, ranging from Christina Sharpe’s exploration of blackness using the framework of a slave ship in her book In the Wake to bell hooks on black female sexuality. According to Moore, going into depth about Beyoncé’s influence in pop culture teaches students about black feminism and the history behind black female performances.

“I thought I would know everything because I’m a fan, but we learn a lot of stuff I didn’t even know we would touch on,” said VCU senior Kelsey Jones.

Jones — a self-proclaimed member of the “BeyHive,” described as Beyoncé’s devoted legion of fans — initially joined the class for an elective credit necessary to graduate. She didn’t realize how much she was going to enjoy the class or the professor until they started diving deeper.

“He got his degree from Yale; his personality is one of a kind, and he’s honestly so hip and kind,” Jones said. “Not to mention he is an African American male who researches and [is interested in] black queer studies.” 

Moore is no stranger to discussing artists and pop culture. He has written multiple articles for VICE, Out Magazine, and The Journal of Popular Music Studies. He also published his first book in 2018, titled Fabulous: The Rise of the Beautiful Eccentric, which goes in-depth about how the idea of fabulousness is used by marginalized groups as ways to cope with pain. Moore is currently writing two books, one being a cultural study on Beyoncé. 

PHOTO: Beyoncé on Facebook

The pop queen is known for her support of universities. In 2017, in honor of the one-year anniversary of her Peabody award-winning album Lemonade, Beyoncé announced the “Formation Scholars” scholarship. The scholarship  was awarded to four women “who are unafraid to think outside the box and are bold, creative, conscious and confident.” The four participating schools were Berklee College of Music, Howard University, Parsons School of Design, and Spelman College.

The following year, Beyoncé and her husband Shawn Carter (also known as Jay-Z) awarded 10 $100,000 scholarships to “exceptional senior high school students with financial needs.” 

Beyoncé also paid homage to historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) with her iconic Coachella performance in 2018. The performance, nicknamed “Beychella,” contained sorority and fraternity imagery, and featured bands and performers from selected HBCUs.

The film of this concert, Homecoming, was released April 17 on Netflix. In tandem, Beyoncé released behind-the-scenes footage from the event along with a surprise live album featuring two new recordings. When asked about Beyonce’s legacy, Moore matter-of-factly cited the uproar caused when that album was released.

“What other artist can drop an album at midnight and make the internet stop?”

Moore will teach “Beyoncé: Music, Race, Fame” again in the spring semester of 2020. Interested VCU students can find detailed info here.

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

Legislators Continue to Address High Eviction Rates in Virginia

VCU CNS | October 2, 2019

Topics: eviction crisis, eviction rates, Jackson Ward, Jennifer McClellan, Matthew Desmond, racist housing policies, redlining, RVA Eviction Lab, Six Points Innovation Center, vcu, VCU Common Book, Virginia commonwealth university, Virginia Poverty Law Center

One in ten Richmonders who rent faced eviction notices in 2016. We all know this is a problem, and Virginia’s legislators are searching for ways to fix it.

Scholars, lawyers and lawmakers are still grappling with high eviction rates in Virginia and how to enact solutions. A panel Thursday at Virginia Commonwealth University addressed the Eviction Lab at Princeton University’s findings that five cities in Virginia ranked in the top 10 for national eviction rates, including Richmond, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk and Chesapeake.

The local eviction rates ranged from 11.4 percent in Richmond to 7.9 percent in Chesapeake. The rate represents the number of evictions per 100 rental homes in an area. 

About 150 people attended the event, which included three panelists: Six Points Innovation Center director Jackie Washington, Virginia Poverty Law Center attorney Phil Storey, and Sen. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond.  

From left: Sen. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, Jackie Washington, Phil Storey, and moderator Megan Pauly at “Eviction Beyond the Numbers: Community Impacts and Policy Landscape of Housing Instability” (Photo by VCU CNS)

McClellan highlighted seven bills that passed the recent General Assembly session and were signed into law. The legislation included bills that made written leases required, reduced the number of eviction cases a landlord could file, created the opportunity for tenants to submit unpaid rent and fees prior to eviction, and allowed tenants to recover their possessions.

“This is not really a partisan issue,” McClellan said. “Where there is disagreement, it’s really sort of the landlords versus tenants, and I don’t mean to say that all landlords are bad or all landlords are predatory.” Of the seven housing laws signed by the governor last session, four were introduced by Democrats and three by Republicans.

McClellan also said in a phone interview after the event that more bills to address eviction, including a bill to address the habitability of a rental property, are in the drafting and planning stages now.   

Though legislators passed a flurry of bills last session to reform landlord and tenant laws, Storey said “way too many people are on the knife’s edge because of the way the system is designed.”

Much of the discussion at the panel held at VCU’s W.E. Singleton Center for the Performing Arts centered around how tenants fall behind on rent payments.  

“Two-thirds of the people who call our hotline are behind on rent, with the average caller being around two and a half months back,” Storey said. 

Storey also said that on average their clients are paying 58 percent of their monthly gross income to rent, with some paying as much as 70 percent.

Panelists also discussed the link between discriminatory housing policies and the eviction rate today, which according to the RVA Eviction Lab increases as the share of the African American population in a neighborhood increases. Washington highlighted historic redlining in Richmond’s Jackson Ward neighborhood, where banks would avoid making real estate investments based on neighborhood demographics, as “an intentionally racist housing policy.”

“If we don’t connect the dots from historic housing policy, then we just might miss it,” Washington said. “But those who experience it will never miss it. Folks of color will always know that it’s racist.”

Storey agreed, saying that “things that seem sort of natural and immutable are often not, and are based in some pretty ugly root causes.”  

Dr. Benjamin Teresa, co-director of the RVA Eviction Lab, introduced the panel “Eviction Beyond the Numbers: Community Impacts and Policy Landscape of Housing Instability” (Photo by VCU CNS)

The panel was sponsored by VCU’s L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs, VCU University College, and Virginia’s home for Public Media. The panelists were introduced by Benjamin Teresa and Kathryn Howell, co-directors of the RVA Eviction Lab at VCU, which opened this year and provides eviction data and research.  

“One of the goals of the lab is to do research that is relevant to Richmond and other cities in Virginia, as well as outside of the state,” Teresa said.

The panel was connected to this year’s VCU Common Book, a program that selects a new book each year for incoming freshmen. The initiative is intended to foster awareness and engagement around important issues.

Incoming freshmen received a copy of Evicted, a book by Matthew Desmond, the founder of the Eviction Lab at Princeton University. Freshman-level courses incorporate the book into coursework and discussion. Desmond is scheduled to visit VCU on Oct. 16.

Candidates from many Virginia House and Senate districts will have a chance to weigh in on evictions at a forum on Oct. 10. Candidates from 11 House districts and from six Senate districts have been invited to participate, though the list of confirmed attendees has not been released yet.

The event will be moderated by VPM and held at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

Written by Jason Boleman, Capital News Service. Top Photo: Attendees marked where they live on eviction maps of Richmond neighborhoods in the lobby of the W.E. Singleton Center for the Performing Arts. Photo via VCU CNS

Westboro Baptist Church Hurls Slurs Ahead of Richmond Visit

VCU CNS | March 4, 2019

Topics: anti-LGBTQ hate, danica roem, hate groups, vcu, Virginia Capitol, Virginia commonwealth university, Westboro Baptist Church

Westboro Baptist Church is planning to visit Virginia Commonwealth University and the Virginia State Capitol on March 11, though it’s unclear how much access the group will have to university grounds.

The Westboro Baptist Church is infamous for its posters that feature slurs against the LGBTQ community and its practice of picketing soldiers’ funerals. The Southern Poverty Law Center calls the church “arguably the most obnoxious and rabid hate group in America.”

According to the VCU policies and events website, members of the public may use university property “only by invitation” from a university employee or student.

However, the public may reserve the Park Plaza amphitheater without an invitation “no more than five days in advance of the desired date of use.”

VCU prohibits expression that is not protected by law, such as obscenity and fighting words.

VCU officials tweeted that they are aware of the WBC’s plans to demonstrate “on City of Richmond public property, near campus.”

“While their views are antithetical to VCU’s core values of diversity and inclusion, their free speech — and ours — is a guaranteed constitutional right,” the tweet said.

A press release from Westboro Baptist Church for the State Capitol event includes hateful language toward Del. Danica Roem, D-Prince William, Virginia’s first transgender woman elected to the General Assembly.

Roem, who has inspired the LGBTQ community, said in a 2017 MSNBC interview: “You can champion inclusion, you can champion equality and equity and you can win.” She has also said that she wants the press to focus on her policies, not her gender.

She defeated 13-term incumbent Robert G. Marshall, who unsuccessfully sponsored legislation known widely as the “bathroom bill,” which would have required people to use the restroom that corresponded with the gender on their birth certificate.

When members of the Westboro Baptist Church visited Richmond in 2010, they encountered hundreds of counterprotesters. They visited the Virginia Holocaust Museum in Shockoe Bottom along with other Jewish cultural centers.

The group’s final stop during the 2010 visit was Hermitage High School on Hungary Spring Road in Henrico County, where church members faced hundreds of young counterdemonstrators. Westboro Baptist Church did not visit VCU that year, but students staged a silent anti-hate rally anyway.

By Rosemarie O’Connor, Capital News Service. Photos via Westboro Baptist Church’s website (unlinked on purpose, google it)

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