Prof Faces Criminal Charges After Urging Vandalism of Pro-Life Display
by Jim Brown
May 23, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A judge says charges may be dropped against six Northern Kentucky University (NKU) students who destroyed a pro-life display on campus if they complete a community service program. However, a tenured feminist professor who encouraged the act of vandalism was not offered the same deal. The students involved in the destruction of property have been charged along with NKU Professor Sally Jacobsen with "criminal mischief" and "theft by unlawful taking" for their role in trashing a display of 400 white crosses, put up in front of the University Center plaza by a student group called Northern Right to Life. The display, titled "Cemetery of Innocents," was designed to call attention to the unborn victims of abortion.
The 400 crosses from the pro-life exhibit, which had been erected with permission from university officials, were removed by the vandals, gathered up, and thrown in trash cans around the plaza. Also, Northern Right to Life's sign bearing the title of the display had been removed and members of the group were unable to find it.
Jacobsen, who has been charged with criminal solicitation, admits to having "invited" her students to participate in destroying the "Cemetery of Innocents," although she has withheld comment regarding her physical involvement in the act of removing the crosses. However, a number of websites and "blogs" have posted images in which the professor appears to be gathering up crosses removed from the pro-life display.
District Judge Karen Thomas says charges against the students involved in the vandalism incident would be dropped if they completed a diversion program. However, Assistant Campbell County Attorney Rick Woeste would not offer Jacobsen a similar plea deal.
"Everybody's entitled to their views on issues, no matter what they are," Woeste notes. "The right-to-life group did that correctly. They went [to school officials], as I understand it, got a permit and put up a display to present their point of view," he says. The teacher in this instance and the students who followed her lead "wanted to let their views be known," the County Attorney points out, "but they did it in a totally inappropriate, criminal manner."
Jacobsen was not given the diversion program option, Woeste explains, because "a distinction was drawn between the students and the person in charge of the students." Officials felt the professor used her authority to intimidate the NKU students into believing they would not be engaging in an unlawful act by destroying the pro-life display.
"We don't live in a country where we're allowed to destroy someone else's property or vandalize someone's else's property when we disagree with what they're saying," Woeste says. "If that were the case, we could never have political signs," he asserts. "The opposition would always destroy each other's signs, and there would be a total intolerance for other folks' views."
Charges against Jacobsen and the students who helped to dismantle the "Cemetery of Innocents" will be discussed today (May 23) at a pre-trial hearing. Meanwhile, a statement last month from NKU President James Votruba said that Professor Jacobsen had been removed from her remaining classes and placed on leave and that she would retire from the university at the end of the semester.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
