Kyle Rittenhouse is set to speak at Kent State University next week as resistance from students and the campus community continues to grow.
The 21-year-old has already made stops at the University of Memphis and Western Kentucky University for his “Rittenhouse Recap” event which was organized to feature his remarks on “the importance of the Second Amendment and the lies of (Black Lives Matter).”
Rittenhouse was invited to the schools by Turning Point USA, a conservative student advocacy group with student chapters on several campuses nationwide. His invitations were met with negative reception and backlash after TPUSA organizers announced them.
Local law enforcement and campus police were present at the University of Memphis and Western Kentucky University as both campuses braced for unrest.
Now, Kent State is preparing for his visit.
Sgt. Tricia Knowles with Kent State Police Services told The Fix that campus police “monitors and assesses the safety of our community during campus events and responds accordingly.” However, Knowles didn’t confirm whether there would be a police presence at Rittenhouse’s speaking event.
Kent State’s TPUSA chapter released a statement saying they will enforce an event admission policy requiring all attendees to provide identification and contact information upon entry.
Before Rittenhouse’s appearance at the University of Memphis last month, Black students encouraged campus members to purchase tickets to fill up seats before staging a walkout in protest.
Several audience members also booed and jeered Rittenhouse until he abruptly left the stage without finishing his remarks or the Q+A portion of the event.
Hundreds of demonstrators encircled the auditorium on the Memphis campus where Rittenhouse spoke and followed him after he exited the building. He and TPUSA organizers had to be escorted off campus by law enforcement.
Following that appearance, the TPUSA chapter at Kent State declared that “vandalism, infringement, or interference of ANY kind will not be tolerated,” including “heckling within the auditorium, hindering the participation of willing individuals, and destruction of property.”
The organization stated they’re prepared to “pursue repercussions” against people who violate university policy, which states that students and faculty can not “substantially obstruct or otherwise substantially interfere with the freedom of others to express views they reject or even loathe.”
Nearly 5,000 people have signed two petitions calling for the cancellation of Rittenhouse’s event.
Several students posted how “tone-deaf” it is to host a speaker who shot and killed two protesters at a campus that was the site of an infamous deadly shooting.
“For a school with a history of protesters getting shot, why would someone who shot protesters be allowed on campus?” one Instagram user recently commented.
“Nothing says ‘tone deaf’ like bringing a guy who’s literally only famous bc he murdered people to a campus where people were murdered,” another wrote.
On May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guard officers killed four students and injured nine others who were protesting after news broke that the U.S. would be intensifying Vietnam War efforts by invading Cambodia.
Rittenhouse was 17 when he shot three protesters, killing two of them, during a 2020 demonstration against the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The jury sided with his self-defense argument during his trial and he was acquitted of five charges, including intentional homicide, in 2021.
“This is a horrific look for Kent State. This event needs to be shut down ASAP. This ‘organization’ is tone deaf,” one person said of TPUSA.
Despite students’ objections, Kent State University officials have already said the event will move forward. Their statement says the university “does not endorse or condone and opinion or point of view” of any speaker invited to the campus, but will “continue to support and encourage freedom of expression and the free exchange of ideas.”
“A registered student organization is bringing this speaker to campus. Kent State University upholds the First Amendment rights of free speech and peaceful assembly for all. As a state university, we permit groups and individuals to speak and share their views on our campus about topics they feel are important,” the statement says. “Kent State has a long history of allowing peaceful dialogue from all points of view, including those whom some may feel are offering different and/or sometimes controversial opinions.”
