A conservative student was suspended from a New York school for offending certain classmates with a simple comment. Disturbingly, he was denied re-entry after refusing to comply with a list of the school’s demands, including “re-education” training.
Owen Stevens is no different from any other young, passionate conservative. He often spouts simple truths backed up by history, research, and data. Of course, this has made him a target of his progressive classmates as well as the capitulating academia that created these monsters.
As yet another casualty of cancel culture, Stevens received an email from State University of New York (SUNY) Geneseo explaining that he was suspended from his field teaching programs after students complained of his videos on Instagram. The videos in question capture Stevens repeating scientific facts that most human beings have accepted for millennia.
Stevens told The Daily Wire that he was suspended for expressing the fact that “a man is a man, a woman is a woman” and that one cannot magically transform into the other by any means. The dean of the university suggested that Stevens’ belief in biology violates the state’s Dignity for All Students Act, which protects individuals from discrimination and bullying on campus.
“You continue to maintain, ‘I do not recognize the gender that they claim to be if they are not biologically that gender,’” the Dean said. “This public position is in conflict with the Dignity for All Students Act requiring teachers to maintain a classroom environment protecting the mental and emotional well-being of all students.”
Stevens explained that he’s since received threats of violence from his peers. However, despite this bullying and harassment, the school hasn’t applied the Dignity Act to his situation.
“I’ve received threats and horrible incidents of students who all feel like they are making the world a better place by becoming the woke thought police,” Stevens said. “Overall, I want justice and the right thing to be done.”
The school insists that Stevens remain suspended from all in-school activities until he completes a list of demands that would effectively squash his political, religious, and scientific beliefs, conforming him to the far-left ideology. If he wishes to return to the programs, Stevens must remove his Instagram posts espousing these ideas, censor himself on future social media posts, and attend what he has called school-sanctioned “re-education” training.
Ironically, the school has accused Stevens of threatening what they consider “a diverse campus community marked by mutual respect for the unique talents and contributions of each individual.” However, the diversity clearly doesn’t extend to political, religious, and scientific beliefs, which must conform to the progressive standard.
The school has also released an email to students and staff officially denouncing Stevens’ beliefs. Disturbingly, the university president reiterated that the school will seek politically-charged “social justice,” not justice.
“Yesterday, I was made aware of a current student’s Instagram posts pertaining to transgender people,” the university’s president wrote. “I want to take this opportunity to publicly restate my deep personal commitment to promoting social justice.”
The email also admitted that the school would pursue further action against Stevens for voicing his opinion, but the First Amendment prevented it from doing so.
“There are clear legal limitations to what a public university can do in response to objectionable speech,” the president wrote. “As a result, there are few tools at our disposal to reduce the pain that such speech may cause.”
The school now claims that it hasn’t done anything to infringe upon Stevens’ rights. In reality, it has done everything to ensure that he is silenced or faces the consequences.
The far-left ideology dominates the media, culture, and academia. However, its adherents will stop at nothing until it controls every facet of American life and all other beliefs are eradicated. We need more young people like Stevens to defend such values and the free exchange of ideas, no matter what they are.
