A pro-abortion feminist studies professor at University of California Santa Barbara reportedly attacked a young pro-life activist, stole and destroyed her sign, and encouraged a group of students to violence, inciting an angry mob.
The pro-life group Survivors contacted LifeNews about the incident, which took place on March 3.
Two pro-life students, Thrin and Joan Short, led the peaceful pro-life outreach event with 11 friends, most of whom were students from Thomas Aquinas College. They used signs displaying images of abortion victims to begin conversations with students before a confrontation by Professor of Feminist Studies, Mireille Miller-Young turned violent.
The angry professor interrupted the students’ calm interaction with the activists by grabbing a pro-life sign out of the hands of one of them, carrying the sign off through the campus flanked by her students, and then assaulting Thrin Short while trying to hide from police, who were on their way, the group said. Police officers later found the remains of the sign, which had been destroyed. UC Santa Barbara police are completing their report to be submitted for prosecution.
The professor’s tired left scratches on the arms of one pro-lifer. (Pictured above right, credit The College Fix.)
The pro-life group indicated that, despite the violence, neither Thrin nor Joan are deterred from leading future pro-life outreaches.
Joan says, “Yesterday we had a good day. We passed out all of the literature we had, and had lots of conversations. We know babies are dying everyday so we will continue to peacefully and nonviolently speak the truth about abortion. We know we will suffer insult and even violence as we did today but we will not waver from our nonviolent speech on behalf of the babies.”
“Survivors leadership are very proud of Thrin Short who at 16 years old, not only led a successful event, but handled one of the ‘worst case scenarios’ of pro-life activism with courage and poise,” says Kristina Garza, Director of Campus outreach for Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust. “She led students even older than herself, to take action to end abortion, and when confronted with anger and violence, she responded calmly and wisely.”
The web site The College Fix, picked up the story as well and offers more details:
A department of feminist studies professor has been accused of going berserk after coming across a campus prolife demonstration that used extremely graphic displays, leading a small mob of students to chant “tear down the sign” before grabbing one of the signs, storming off with it, then allegedly engaging in an altercation with a 16-year-old prolife protestor who had followed the educator to retrieve it.
Much of the scuffle was recorded on a smartphone by the 16-year-old, Thrin Short. The yet-to-be-released video is now in the custody of Santa Barbara law enforcement officials, who are investigating the March 4 incident.
The professor at the heart of the controversy is Mireille Miller-Young, an associate professor whose area of emphasis is black cultural studies, pornography and sex work, according to her faculty webpage. She could not be reached for comment Tuesday by The College Fix.
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The confrontation took place at the coastal, public university’s “free speech” area, a heavily traversed part of the quad.
“This is probably the most extreme reaction we have seen in a while,” Garza said Tuesday in an interview with The College Fix, adding most of the time upset students just name call or steal pamphlets. “We want this prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
