Stand with Melissa

I walked around the circle thanking the volunteers and repeated that the students would resume speaking with journalists shortly. As you know from the video, I also encountered one person, Mark Schierbecker, who had broken through this peaceful, temporary circle. Unlike the numerous professional journalists I had met that day who introduced themselves with their names and affiliations, he introduced himself only as “media.” I felt concerned about why he was inside the circle when the majority of journalists respected the students’ requests for a few quiet moments. The events on campus leading up to this day — including hateful and threatening incidents targeting black students — were heavy on the minds of those of us on the quad. Given this, I believe my concern was warranted, even though my actions that followed were not.

The encounter was a quick one. Having no training in crowd management, I felt overwhelmed and flustered. My regrettable call for “muscle” was not a call for violence but instead a request for more experienced and taller members from the camp to come to my aid. Indeed, in the 12-minute video of this encounter, you can see that two members of the student group peacefully escorted Schierbecker outside the circle. Shortly after, the circle broke up, and the students were swarmed with friends, supporters and journalists.

Journalists had a right to be at Carnahan Quad under the First Amendment, just as I, other faculty and students did that day. The temporary circle around the students was not intended to silence journalists or infringe on anyone’s rights, only to ask for a few moments of respect and courtesy while the students collected their thoughts.