Last year, the Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) chapter at Ole Miss tore down a mock wall to commemorate the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. But as Young America's Foundation spokesperson Kara Zupkus reports, school officials threatened the organization because of the tool that was used to knock down the structure.
She says administrators claimed, "The mallet that they actually used to destruct the Berlin Wall could be used as a weapon and could put students in danger, which is ridiculous. So many of our chapters use mallets or large pieces of … plywood to knock down the wall."
The school also wrongly accused YAF of holding an "unregistered event," which the Mississippi Justice Institute made clear was unconstitutional.
"The chapter wasn't really sure where they stood with the administration at the school, so we again kind of put pressure on them," the YAF spokeswoman relays. "That is when they came back with that excuse of, Oh, it was the mallet. But don't worry. We're just going to kind of forget about it."
Zupkus suggests Ole Miss backed down after the Justice Institute threatened legal action.
