Virginia Tech and Blacksburg leaders are preparing a response to an upcoming protest from the Westboro Baptist Church in relation to slain Tech student Morgan Harrington.
Members of the church, based in Topeka, Ks., have received negative attention for their protests at military funerals as well as anti-gay and anti-Semitic rhetoric.
A calendar post on the Westboro Baptist Church’s Web site, godhatesfags.com, says the group will protest April 9 in downtown Blacksburg, outside Blacksburg High School, and the Virginia Tech branch of Hillel.
About 30 people circled together inside Owens Dining Hall Saturday afternoon to discuss a unified response. The meeting, led by Student Government Association president Brandon Carroll, tossed around several ideas in handling the church.
“We want everybody on the same page,” Carroll said.
Among the propositions discussed were whether or not a counter-protest should be organized and if T-shirts would be commissioned. Carroll said that the SGA had proposed $250 for a counter-protest. Carroll also created a Google group, HokieNationResponse.
While some at the meeting proposed blocking the group’s proposed protest location, members of the group pointed out the action would be illegal under town code.
Article II, Section 15-203 of the Blacksburg Town Code prohibits persons from physically interfering with demonstrations, or addressing protestors with “profane, indecent, abusive, or threatening language.” Violation of the code is punishable as a Class 3 misdemeanor.
The group voted, agreeing that a counter-protest will be formed. In addition, the group suggested that a fundraiser be created to counter the group. While the proposed fundraiser would generate money for the amount of time church members protested, no specific details of the proposed fundraiser were discussed.
After the meeting, Carroll said he hoped the Tech community would “prove to them they’re not welcome in our community.”
“We’re tough-skinned people who won’t be affected by them,” Carroll said.
While online commentators have claimed the church is protesting about the shootings of April 16, 2007, church officials said their protest will make no mention of the 2007 shootings. This comes as a result of a previous agreement with radio host Mike Gallagher.
With the group preparing to protest in Blacksburg in the immediate aftermath of the shootings, Gallagher agreed to give the group two hours of airtime, in exchange for the group agreeing to not picket the funerals of shooting victims. Gallagher described the agreement as “the right thing to do.”
“If my radio show can prevent a circus atmosphere of protests, counter-protests, police protection, and media coverage from taking place in front of churches where grieving families are trying to say good-bye to their loved ones, then I think that’s a good thing,” Gallagher said, in an April 22, 2007 post on townhall.com.
Church officials said they were not protesting the 2007 shootings, saying they were “coming for the event that happened last month,” referencing slain student Morgan Harrington. A 20-year-old education major, Harrington was found in late January 2010 after going missing in October 2009 while attending a Metallica concert in Charlottesville, Va.
“We’re not going to bring our sign that said, ‘God sent the shooter.’ No, no, we’ll leave that one at home.’” said Shirley Phelps-Roper, eldest daughter of church founder Fred Phelps. “We’ve got a sign that says ‘God sent the killer.’”
The church’s protest at Blacksburg High School is against Kevin Jennings, Assistant Deputy Secretary for the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools at the U.S. Department of Education.
Montgomery County Schools Superintendent Brenda Blackburn said no determination has been made on how they would communicate to students and parents about the protest. Classes will be in session on April 9.
“We are specifically working with town of Blacksburg law enforcement … speaking with them about what plans they have about police coverage in the area,” Blackburn said. “That’s the extent of what we’re doing at this moment.”
The church will end its day rallying against the Tech branch of Hillel, with a protest set for the Blacksburg Jewish Community Center on East Roanoke Street in Blacksburg.
Sue Kurtz, executive director of Tech’s Hillel, was not available for comment Monday.
The LGBTA community has also shown outrage about the church’s protest. Aimee Kanode, a senior humanities, science, and environment major at Tech and president of Tech’s LGBTA said she would not attend the protest, as she has work on the day of the protest.
“These people are awful, appalling, despicable,” Kanode said. “My method is to just ignore them. Me wasting energy on those people is not worth my time.” Kanode said that while the group would not officially organize for the protest, several members and officers would be in attendance. Kanode said she advised her members to “be smart about it.”
“Be safe and know what you can and cannot do,” Kanode said. Jean Elliot and Ken Belcher, co-chairs of Tech’s LGBT Caucus, declined a request for comment on the protest.
Another concern for community members is the potential for the protest to take away from other events for the day. Among the events scheduled for April 9 include a memorial for David Seth Mitchell, a US Marine killed in Afghanistan and Tech’s Relay for Life event, which is a fundraiser for cancer research.
Whitney Law, a senior communication major and director of Tech’s Relay for Life, declined immediate comment on the protest.
The group’s protest is a major example of the challenges of the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
Joseph Russomanno, an associate professor at Arizona State University and expert of first amendment and media law, said the law allows for the expression of controversial topics, describing it as a “marketplace of ideas.”
“We as a society can select from variety of viewpoints and facts and decide where we want to go on particular issues,” Russomanno said. “We allow all ideas into discussion, and select the best ones.”
The Westboro Baptist Church’s protests have drawn the attention of the courts, with several members arrested at their protests.
Members of the church are set to appear in front of the Supreme Court in the case of Snyder v. Phelps. Albert Snyder, the father of a slain U.S. marine, was initially awarded $10.9 million following the church’s picket of his son’s funeral. With the reward reduced to $5 million, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals later overturned the ruling in the church’s favor. The court agreed to review the case March 9, 2010.
“This case, this ruling has the potential to be a very important First Amendment ruling,” Russomanno said.
The Westboro Baptist Church will start its April 9 protest at 1 p.m on the corner of North Main Street and East Roanoke Street. The church will then proceed to Blacksburg High School at 2:15 p.m., and the church will finish in Blacksburg with a 3 p.m. protest at the Blacksburg Jewish Community Center on East Roanoke Street.
