Sandy MaloneTempe, AZ – A small group of protesters demanded on Wednesday that Arizona State University (ASU) kick Kyle Rittenhouse off the schools’ campus despite the fact he had only been taking classes online from Wisconsin and had already stopped.
Students for Socialism ASU held what was advertised as a “rally against racist murderer Kyle Rittenhouse being permitted on our campus” on Dec. 1 at the Nelson Fine Arts Center.
Students for Justice in Palestine, the Multicultural Solidarity Coalition and Mecha de ASU joined up with the Students for Socialism ASU group to demand the university expel Rittenhouse and bar him from enrolling in the future.
A Students for Socialism ASU spokesperson told FOX News that the end goal was to tell the university administration they didn’t feel safe knowing that a “mass shooter” had been admitted to the school.
“The goal of these demands is to let the ASU administration know that we as the ASU community do not feel safe knowing that a mass shooter, who has expressed violent intentions about ‘protecting property’ over people, is so carelessly allowed to be admitted to the school at all,” the spokesperson said. “Our campus is already unsafe as is, and we would like to abate this danger as much as possible.”
But Rittenhouse claimed self-defense and was acquitted of murder and all other charges in a jury trial in November.
The Students for Socialism ASU chapter spokesperson told FOX News the verdict in the Rittenhouse trial “effectively gives right-winged individuals the license to kill other individuals who protest for human rights.”
“Rittenhouse took the lives of innocent people with the intent to do so — by strapping an assault rifle to himself in a crowd of unarmed citizens. That is the textbook definition of intention,” the student group’s spokesman said.
One of Rittenhouse’s attackers was pointing a pistol at him at the time he was shot.
“The decision made by the court is one of thousands of cases that have been influenced by biased judges, predominantly white juries, and mistakes inherent in a judicial system founded off of injustice to begin with,” the spokesperson told FOX News.
The three men shot by Rittenhouse were all white.
Before the planned rally on Dec. 1, ASU announced that Rittenhouse was no longer an online student at the college, the Arizona Republic reported.
On Nov. 29, ASU confirmed Rittenhouse was no longer enrolled at the university but added that there was “no action taken by the university.”
ASU President Michael Crow then said in a statement on Nov. 30 that Rittenhouse had been taking “two publicly available courses for this semester,” the Arizona Republic reported.
Crow said the change in Rittenhouse’s status was “precipitated by his own actions.”
“As a university that measures itself by whom it includes and how they succeed, should he choose to seek admission in the future, his application will be processed as any other would be,” the university president said in the statement.
The fact Rittenhouse was no longer enrolled in the school did not stop a small group of students from progressive organizations from protesting on Wednesday.
ARIZONA: “..ASU IS A WHITE SUPREMACIST UNIVERSITY!”
A Kari Lake supporter responds, “what’s wrong with our skin bigot?!”
ASU socialists protest Kyle Rittenhouse attending online classes at the university even though he is no longer enrolled at the school pic.twitter.com/LT8VtoTjMf
— Drew Hernandez (@DrewHLive) December 1, 2021
A much larger group of Rittenhouse supporters showed up a few minutes into the rally and outshouted the Socialist students, videos of the event shared to social media showed.
ARIZONA: Kari Lake supporters and conservatives CRASH the ASU socialist’s protest against Kyle Rittenhouse attending online classes at the university even though he is no longer enrolled at the school pic.twitter.com/WlENZjckNK
— Drew Hernandez (@DrewHLive) December 2, 2021
The protesters leading the rally seemed to be confused about the details of Rittenhouse’s case and accused the teen of having been a white supremacist killer repeatedly.
ARIZONA: Kyle Rittenhouse didn’t get a guilty verdict because he was F*cking WHITE!”
“Kyle… killed black and brown people”
ASU socialists protest Kyle Rittenhouse attending online classes at the university even though he is no longer enrolled at the school pic.twitter.com/StRU30QMRo
— Drew Hernandez (@DrewHLive) December 1, 2021
“Kyle Rittenhouse didn’t get a guilty verdict because he was f-king white!” a student screamed from the stage during the event.
Rittenhouse has threatened legal action against those who continue to falsely label him a white supremacist, the New York Post reported.
After the initial demonstration in front of the school’s arts center, the protesters made their way across campus to the administration building where they chanted “ASU, shame on you” at bored-looking police officers on the other side of the glass walls.
ARIZONA: ASU socialists chant “ASU SHAME ON YOU!” outside of the ASU Foundation Fulton Center
A Chad Officer appears to not be having it
ASU socialists protest Kyle Rittenhouse attending online classes at the university even though he is no longer enrolled at the school pic.twitter.com/ZaLzHuAgnW
— Drew Hernandez (@DrewHLive) December 2, 2021
A spokesman for ASU said there were no arrests during the protest, the Arizona Republic reported.
“University campuses are synonymous with free speech, an environment for the vigorous discussion and debate of ideas. Differences of opinion, from all sides, should be explored in a peaceful exchange,” ASU spokesman Jay Thorne told the newspaper in an email.
Holly Matkin
