DISCLAIMER: Before you read this article, if you DO NOT support differences of opinions or believe that your opinion is more important than anyone else's, please stop reading now.

This past Thursday at my college, Le Moyne College in Syracuse, NY, students held a silent protest in response to the recent presidential election. It was meant to be a human rights rally to unify the Le Moyne community. While getting ready to begin the protest, a group of pick up trucks drove through the campus, one with a Confederate Flag. Taye Norris, a Le Moyne student caught this on video. https://www.facebook.com/tahleece.williams/videos/...

Many have said that it was their right to do this as per the first amendment freedom of speech. However, Freedom of speech does not include the right:

• To incite actions that would harm others (e.g., “Shouting ‘fire’ in a crowded theater.”).
  Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47 (1919).
• To make or distribute obscene materials.
  Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476 (1957).
• To burn draft cards as an anti-war protest.
  United States v. O’Brien, 391 U.S. 367 (1968).
• To permit students to print articles in a school newspaper over the objections of the school administration.
  Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, 484 U.S. 260 (1988).
• Of students to make an obscene speech at a school-sponsored event.
  Bethel School District #43 v. Fraser, 478 U.S. 675 (1986).
• Of students to advocate illegal drug use at a school-sponsored event.
  Morse v. Frederick, __ U.S. __ (2007).

Those in bold are what I believe was violated.

This was intended to scare students, which unfortunately, it did. As they drove through campus, a group of students congregated aside from the protesters and cheered for the Confederate Flag. This caused a Professor to converse with them on if they knew what their support meant and how it was affecting the silent protesters who are their peers. As the protesters began their march around campus, a group of Trump Supporters followed behind. The rest of the day went by in slow motion. One Multicultural club, P.O.W.E.R. (Pride in Our Work, Ethnicity, and Race) held a discussion later to debrief students as well as allow students a safe place to express their feelings.

Following this incident, the President of the college sent out an email to student. Students shared the email with a number of alumni who feel as though the email doesn't show the college doing anything about it. Hundreds of parents, students and alumni have called the school talking to different offices and administrators in regards to how this will be taken care of.

I followed this incident up but asking a few students on how they think things moving forward will be. Below are their responses:

I asked Junior Manisha D. the following questions:

Are you a minority? If so, in what context? (African American, Indian, Asian, Muslim, homosexual, etc.) as a minority, how do you think this presidency will affect you? Has this incident made you feel unsafe in anyway, or more than usual? What can your community (school and local) do to increase their self-awareness of racism during these next few months and what support do you or have you sought out to help you get through these times, if any? How would you like Le Moyne to respond to this incident and how do you think they should address us as students about it?

She responded with:

Yes I am. I'm a Guyanese Hindu female. I'm not so much fearful of what trumps presidency will consist of as far as policy but more so of his platform and how many people are seeing his presidency as a chance to be bold and openly discriminate others based on their sexual orientation, race, religion and gender. These divides among people have already persisted but now people are fearless and blunt in their pursuits to make others feel inferior. This incident had made me feel unsafe as a student who pays 40k every year to attend here I should feel safe at the institution. I know I'm an minority but I never been treated like one here. I feel excluded from the Le Moyne community and don't feel that dolphin pride. What the school community can do is actually let those responsible for the act face consequences. Educating them won't do anything, it's clear that they are aware of their actions and used it to provoke those engaged in the peaceful protest. Le Moyne needs to take swift action. A simple apology will not cut it.

Senior Muna J posted her reaction to the incident on Facebook.

[As a] Somali-American Muslim,

I woke up this morning, after having a hard time falling asleep last night hoping this was a bad dream. I was shaken, I was stuck . I'm hurt, I'm angry and most of all the child in me is in complete fear. I know everything we get in this world is already written for us and we can't control it but I can't control these random outbreaks of tears that come down my face. As a Somali-American, Muslim, and a woman, I believe everything that I am this country doesn't seem to want , and doesn't seem to appreciate. I took a piece of paper and wrote everything I was thinking while the tears were dropping down my face; not everyone is going to agree with how I feel, what I feel but these is MY FEELINGS and I have the right to voice them. Just like this is a democracy, please don't tell me how to feel, I will get over this feeling but let me feel it and get through it. This is the child in me, don't tell me how to feel: you won't understand my pain, you won't understand my anxiety. I'm struck with fear causing me to shake at my core, this feeling of instability, of uncertainty, it is like deja vù --watching history repeats itself. How did we go from making history once to being so close to it again to putting someone who's such a bigot in office. I am stuck! I feel like a broken child who has a whole building of bricks weighing me down. The child in me is scared, what the heck the adult me is scared. This anger I'm feeling is from fear, from the hurt. I'm taken back to this feeling of fear, and hurt with vague but distinct memories of leaving my family behind, leaving my grandmother and my great grandmother and grandfather in a war torn country. Memories of my young mother struggling to scatter the little she may have had to make ends meet hits me like a ton of bricks. The nights of being uncertain what would happen next, the days filled with us being anxious waiting to hear what was next for us. Being torn away from my father, his family, to come for a better future, the sacrifices that were made. Did it all go away in vain? Although it's not happening at this very moment the child in me is scared and concerned while waiting for it to happen. This anxious feeling of something awful is or has happened won't leave my body. When my little cousins and sister are in fear that their parents will be taken away from them, I feel with them. I feel for them, I grieve with them and I cry with them. It's okay to cry , it's okay to feel. I feel like I'm at a funeral just waiting for the body to be brought in so I can say my final goodbyes. Please don't tell me it'll be okay, don't tell me it's just politics because for me this feeling is real. Today I am in fear for me, for my family, for my close friends, for us as a nation, a country I consider my own a country, I'm feeling stuck and I'm traumatized. I came here for security to better myself and my family but will that security be taken away? America do you love me like I loved you?"

Freshman Kelvin N said the following on how he feels and what the college can do to help better us as a whole:

As a minority and a homosexual, this presidency has me traumatized in the fact that I feel like I can't be myself anymore, I cant express who I am. The incident on campus definitely does not make me feel safe anymore, I feel as if I am the target due to our differences. I believe the school should allow courses that are more diverse so that students are able to get more knowledge about other races and hopefully reduce the sense of ignorance on campus currently. I have an amazing support team here which makes every day worthwhile. If it wouldn't have been for my friends, I don't know how I would be getting through this. We are in this together.

Three students who voted for Trump would not respond when asked about how this incident affected them and how they thought the college would handle it.

I then asked my mother from a parental perspective, not as my mother, what she thought needs to be the next step:

"I would like Le Moyne College to use this despicable incident as a teaching moment. I think that they could learn to teach diversity, tolerance, and temperament to these college educated kids, the decisive way that they acted out is uncalled for, against the Jesuit Mission and I believe some disciplinary action should be taken against all those who could be easily found who participated in the parade of the Confederate Flag in front of the Chapel and peaceful students singing Amazing Grace. Its disturbing to me as a tuition paying parent, as a Christian citizen and a community activist in a community I feel very strongly about. Hate, Hate Crimes, anything that would depict other people as less than, I feel very strongly that the school should take into consideration these people who participated in this, I feel hate crime act, and they need to be talked to and have some type of disciplinary action set forth."

I lastly asked a friend from another local campus, Syracuse University, how the election has affected her campus:

There have been reports of verbal harassment around my campus but there have also been a lot of people banding together to show support for minorities that feel threatened by Trump and Pence. A lot of people have become more active in regards to politics and social injustices than they were before. He campaigned on a platform of hate and it seems possible that he could create policies that negatively impact LGBT people and their families. Also it seems like he has given permission to people to express their bigotry and fear and project it onto already marginalized groups. Facebook has felt like more of a community. Even though there are some Trump supporters, I have mostly felt like people back me up. I don't know if the school as an institution can necessarily do anything, but they can promote conversations and safe spaces for people who feel unsafe because of him without specifically linking it to Trump. It would be nice to see the school take a stand so students know that they can be safe and are supported.

As to stay as neutral to both sides, I will not be including my personal opinion.

So now I ask you, Le Moyne, where do we go from here? When will students know what is going to happen moving forward? Where are our answers because we deserve them. We cannot continue to prosper as a Jesuit family if we allow students to believe that we will stand by and let this happen, they need to know that this is not tolerable. So tell us, what now?

Le Moyne has thus released a statement in an email stating that the proper actions are being taken, as one of the protestors was not a member of the Le Moyne community, and will no longer be allowed on campus.