Department of Public Safety officers threatened to call the Metropolitan Police Department on students who were guarding their chalkings welcoming potential first-year students in Red Square last Friday.
Members of GU Pride and the Georgetown Solidarity Committee chalked Red Square for the second Georgetown Admissions Ambassador Program weekend, when potential students visit the University campus.
Students began chalking Red Square at 9 p.m. Thursday and remained in Red Square throughout the night to ensure that their display was not destroyed.
“A motley crew of drunken people came by explaining why they felt that gay people didn’t have anything to complain about,” said Kate McDonald (CAS ‘04).
According to Maria Moser (CAS ‘04), one student took a stack of Human Rights Campaign stickers and threw them on the ground, and other students yelled “fags” at the demonstrators.
“The fact that we had to stay up all night was sad,” Moser said.
At approximately 6 a.m. Friday morning, a maintenance crew arrived and told the students that they were called in on over-time to wash down Red Square, McDonald said. Students explained to the maintenance workers that their understanding was that Red Square was washed down on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, she said.
According to GSC Campaign Coordinator Mike Wilson (CAS ‘05), after asking for a few minutes to clear up the situation, workers said that they had to begin washing down Red Square.
At this point, students sat down on the chalkings, Wilson said.
“We all decided to sit down on the chalk we had done so they would not be able to spray it without spraying us,” he said.
The maintenance crew then called DPS, and officers arrived on the scene, students said. After asking organizers to move, one of the DPS officers threatened to call MPD and told students, “You’re going to get wet,” said GU Pride member Liam Stack (CAS ‘05), who organized the GAAP weekend campaign.
“DPS talked about calling Metro to arrest us, for what, I’m not sure, because we weren’t doing anything illegal,”Stack said.
Director of DPS William Tucker said that DPS officers should not have responded in that manner.
“[Officers] should not have made a threat like that,” Tucker said, in reference to the “you’re going to get wet” comment.
According to Tucker, DPS officers only contact Metro in a serious situation, and from the information that he had, this did not seem like such a situation.
GU Pride Co-President and Voice staff member Joe McFadden (CAS ‘02) was called by one of the demonstrators when the maintenance crew arrived.
After speaking with the DPS Sergeant on duty, McFadden was able to talk to a supervisor in the Office of Facilities, Wilson said. During this time, the DPS officers on the scene were contacted by radio and told not to spray off Red Square, according to Wilson.
Executive Director of Facilities Karen Frank said that Red Square is washed down every Monday and Friday. Student organizers said that they were not aware of the Monday and Friday schedule.
This schedule is not published, unlike the University’s policy on removing flyers which is in the Student Handbook.
“It is not a policy, but a work schedule. We do not publish work schedules,” Frank said.
“It is irresponsible of the University to change a free speech policy without telling the students,” Stack said.
After the uncertainty in the morning, Stack said that the demonstration went well.
“Both times we’ve had strong positive feedback from current students. This time feedback from pre-frosh was particularly positive. For example, one girl came up to the table and thanked us for being out there, and the visibility we had shown was making her more strongly consider Georgetown for next fall,” Stack said. (Adipex)
Stack said that the students plan on being visible at the remaining GAAP weekends.
“The details are yet to be determined, but something will be done,” Stack said.
