Nearly two years ago, Fresno State Professor Greg Thatcher and some of his students purposefully wiped away pro-life chalk messages written by the Fresno State Students for Life group. The chalk messages were approved by the university, but Thatcher decided to censor the pro-life message claiming that “free speech is free speech in the free speech area” and that “college campuses are not free speech areas.” He said he and his students were exercising their own free speech as he proceeded to rub the chalk off the sidewalk with his shoe.
With the assistance of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), Students of Life filed a lawsuit and won the case. According to ADF, Thatcher was ordered never to interfere with Students for Life at Fresno State again and had to pay nearly $26,000 in attorney fees to student Bernadette Tasy and another student club member. He also had to attend a training on free speech given by ADF attorney Travis C. Barham.
In an article for ADF, Tasy said that the impact of that attack against free speech was much greater than they could have imagined. They felt defeated after a year of having their fliers torn down or vandalized and the professor’s actions left them feeling completely disheartened. But the video of the professor and his students was viewed thousands of times and inspired talk on social media about free speech. And Students for Life at Fresno grew from a few members to over 25 active pro-life participants.
Thanks to the free speech rights of Students for Life and their willingness to not back down to pro-abortion bullies, Jess, a student at Fresno State, was able to visit the pro-life information table and pick up a 12-week fetal model. When Jess found herself facing an unplanned pregnancy not long after that encounter, she went to Planned Parenthood who told her that “abortion was her only option.”
However, because of that fetal model, Jess chose life and gave birth to baby Eden. Not only was she able to welcome her child into the world, but she also proved abortion advocates wrong. She earned a 4.0 GPA and is now co-vice president of Students for Life at Fresno State.
Full story at Live Action.
College campuses are opposed to intellectual freedom. College professors are a bunch of pompous, arrogant elitist intellectual windbags who, despite being woefully lacking in the capacity for physical altercations, try to push everyone else around and try to dictate to everyone else what they must think and what they are not allowed to think. They should confine their bullying to the classroom, because will not get too far when trying to push people around in the street or in the bar.
So many good things came from the bad action of this professor: the professor was held accountable for his actions; many views of the video of this professor opposing free speech; the ranks of the pro-life movement increased; a life was saved.
Thank you Prof. Thatcher!!
Hahaha. The good guys win one once in awhile.
This arrogant professor also needs to publicly apologize and express support for the 1st Amendment.
The professor was ordered to pay $26k in legal fees?
That’s it? Nothing for the plaintiffs? No punitive damages?
I am a paralegal for a personal injury trial lawyer.
This is considered a LOSS for the plaintiffs.
The case SHOULD have yielded $1M in damages
including punitive damages + 500k in legal fees.
Who at Fresno State lead the prof to believe that free speech areas (Pruneyard) applies in a way that restricts speech in a public venue?
Thank You Jesus for the positive outcome, I’m sure several more babies were saved even though evil reared it’s head!