FLASHREPORT

WILL CAMPUS LEFT "TAKE DOWN" ASB PRESIDENT AT SACRAMENTO CITY COLLEGE?

Katy Grimes

 
Steve Macias attends a public community college. He is a good student, active in campus life, participates in clubs and student government. He is President of the Associated Student Government (ASG) on campus and is participating in the planning of the Constitution Day events at school. The ASG votes to invite outside groups and speakers to participate in the two-day event, and goes through the proper channels for approval.
 
On Constitution Day at Sacramento City College, speakers are scheduled, outside groups and organizations have booths and displays in the college quad, and mini pocket constitutions are passed out to students. But then unexpectedly, Macias is pulled out of class by an administrator and told that because there are students in his office who are offended by a group that your Macias arranged to have on campus, now Macias needs to tell the group to take down their display and leave campus.
 
Steve Macias disagrees and tells the administrator that they have a constitutional right to be on a public college campus. The administrator argues back that Macias should have sought out an opposing group, and invited them to participate in the same event. Macias tells the administrator that participation was open to any group that wanted to participate in Constitution Day on their campus and it is unconstitutional to decide which groups can or cannot participate.
 
Steve Macias could be any of our sons or daughters attending Sacramento City College.
 
The group in the middle of the controversy is the anti-abortion group known as Genocide Awareness Project. The next day, Planned Parenthood, The Queer Straight Alliance club, the Sac City Free Thinkers club, and City College Health Services set up booths across from the anti-abortion presentation… and a recall petition was being circulated to oust Steve Macias.
 
The ASG unanimously voted to allow the Genocide Awareness Project to participate in Constitution Day, and then claimed that they didn’t know what they were voting on, and the City College teacher and ASG Student Advisor went right along with their agenda.
 
Do you see a problem with the school administration interfering with constitutionally guaranteed free speech rights?
 
“I am highly offended,” the ASG Vice President Debbie Dixon said. “I have rights, just as they have rights to not be offended!” Somehow, this is justification for tossing a group off of a public campus? Don’t schools teach about free speech anymore, or do they just teach that if you are offended you can violate others’ constitutional rights to free speech?
 
The constitution does not guarantee any citizen the right to not be offended. The public school however, is required by law to uphold the Constitution and allow presentations, displays and speeches by groups that not everyone is going to like.
 
Even the ACLU promoted the City College Constitution Day events on their website with the following statement: “This day has been recognized by all institutions of higher education to promote awareness of United States Constitution.” Where is the ACLU now?
 
The organization doing the “offending” is not the issue.
 
Political debate, philosophy and ideology are not the issue.
 
Free speech is the only issue. You don’t have to like the speech to recognize that free speech is the only constitutional issue in this debate.
 
This incident could have been avoided if the administration at Sacramento City College had followed their own policy. The campus is open to the public and, according to City College Dean of Operations Gregory Hayman, the anti-abortion group had the right to be on campus.
 
What’s the rest of the story?
 
Sacramento City College Associated Student Government President Steve Macias is at the heart of a recall that appears to be endorsed by the City College ASG teacher/student advisor and school administration. Endorsed, because the administration is not educating students about the Constitutional rights of all students. The ASG advisor illegally validated the signatures himself needed for a recall, set the date for the recall election via email conversations and text messages -- something that should have been done by the Student Government, in accordance with the Brown Act which guarantees public access and open public meetings, as well as ASG Student Government Constitution.
 
Unfortunately, it’s become more personal than school politics. The ASG advisor seems to have a personal beef with ASG Steve Macias. Using intimidation tactics to target a student, Mr. Macias reports that the ASG teacher/Advisor loses Macias’s paperwork, ignores requests for participation at events, has no tables available for participation at school events or puts Macias at the back of the room, and even revoked Macias’s attendance at the National Student Leadership conference NCSL October 2009 Los Angeles and attendance at Sacramento’s Perspectives conference… both events that every college Student Body President should attend.
 
Sacramento City College administrators are walking a precarious tight rope of constitutionality.
 
This could and should be a learning experience by the school. Instead it is the students who are giving the teachers and school administrators a lesson in the Constitution.