Johns Hopkins University Compares Pro-Life Students to White Supremacists

The Student Government Association at Johns Hopkins University compared pro-life students to white supremacists and denied them official club status at the school.

“They were denied status because the students on the student council felt being pro-life violates their harassment policy,” said Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America.

Hawkins told Fox News the student group, called Voice for Life, is searching for an attorney and they plan on fighting the ban.

The SGA at Johns Hopkins voted March 12 to deny Voice for Life the right to become an official student club. That vote was affirmed on March 24 by the SGA’s senate.

SGA representatives did not return calls seeking comment.

“We were pretty shocked when the students showed their bias toward the pro-life students,” Hawkins said.

According to emails obtained by Fox News, members of the SGA compared the pro-life students to white supremacists.

“And this is why we don’t approve groups like Voice for Life,” one SGA member wrote, linking to an article about a white supremacist group at Towson University.

Hawkins said the comparison was particularly offensive to African-American members of the pro-life group.

“To compare pro-lifers with white supremacists – it’s unreal,” she said.

Another SGA member said they objected to pro-life displays at Johns Hopkins, saying she “felt personally violated, targeted and attacked at a place where we previously felt safe and free to live our lives.”

An SGA senator said “we have the right to protect our students from things that are uncomfortable. Why should people have to defend their beliefs on their way to class?”

Andrew Guernsey, a student at Johns Hopkins and president of Voice for Life, said they simply want to exercise their right to free speech and association.

“It is inconsistent with the JHU’s motto ‘The Truth Will Set You Free’ for the SGA to try to hide its students – many future doctors and nurses – from the truth about abortion and how it hurts women, families and most of all, innocent preborn babies,” he said.

And that’s the problem, according to another private email from an SGA senator.

“If their sole and fundamental purpose is to stop students from having abortions, that’s not what we need,” the senator wrote. “I understand people’s right to freedom of speech, but this is a private university, and as such, we have the right to protect our students from things that are uncomfortable.”

Hawkins said the emails are proof that the senators violated their own constitution.

“They strive to create free speech and free expression on campus and they’ve openly violated it,” she told Fox News. “

Hawkins conceded that on private university campuses – free speech is not necessarily free.

“Sadly, this happens time and time again on private university campuses,” she said. “They feel like they don’t have to uphold freedom of speech.”

Ironically, she said, on the same day their group was denied status, the student lawmakers approved status for a pro-Palestinian group.

“That group actually has a history of violence on other campuses along with anti-Semitism,” she said.

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A New Birth of Education Freedom

As the nation has focused on the Supreme Court hearings on the constitutionality of same-sex marriage, news from the state of Indiana could prove far more important regarding the nation’s future.

The Indiana Supreme Court has just ruled unanimously, 5-0, that Indiana’s school voucher program, signed into law in 2011, the most expansive school voucher program in the nation, does not violate the state’s constitution.

Those who challenged the law argued that the voucher program is unconstitutional because it allows public funds to be used for religious education.

Not so, said the court. The voucher goes to the families, not the schools. It is the parents who decide how to spend it.

Why do I draw connection between the US Supreme Court’s review of same-sex marriage and this voucher decision in Indiana? And why do I suggest that the Indiana decision may be more important to the nation’s future than whatever the Supreme Court decides on same sex marriage?

Same-sex marriage sits before the Supreme Court today because of the dramatic change in public opinion over recent years regarding the legitimacy and morality of same-sex marriage and homosexual relations. General public opinion is far more accepting today of both than it has been in the past.

What has driven this change?

One obvious place to look is the direct generational correlation regarding acceptance of same-sex marriage. Younger Americans are far more accepting of these values than older Americans.

According to the latest survey from the Pew Research Center, approval of same sex marriage among those born between 1928-1945 is 31 percent; 1946-1964, 38 percent; 1965-1980, 49 percent; and after 1980, 70 percent.

So it seems quite reasonable to conclude that the systematic purge over the last half-century of religion and traditional values from our public schools has produced a new generation of Americans with values different from those of their parents and grandparents.

In 1962 the Supreme Court found state-sponsored school prayer unconstitutional. Subsequently, the Supreme Court found unconstitutional posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools (1980), public schools setting aside time for private or voluntary prayer (1985), and “performance of religious activity” at school promotional and graduation ceremonies (1992).

The rationale behind all these decisions was supposedly to preserve and protect religious liberty in our public schools.

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British schools expel 15 sex bullies a day: Even primary pupils driven to assaults by internet porn

Fifteen children are expelled from school for sexual misconduct on average every day.  At least one of these will be from primary school, official figures show.

More than 3,000 children are excluded every year for offences including sexual bullying, sexual assaults and harassment.

The revelation comes amid increasing concern over the prevalence of ‘sexting’, when boys share explicit pictures of girls, often leaving the victims feeling suicidal.

Only yesterday the National Union of Teachers warned that sexual equality has been ‘rebranded by big business’ into a ‘raunch culture’ which is damaging the way girls view themselves.

Playboy bunnies adorn children’s pencil cases, pole dancing is portrayed as an ‘empowering’ form of exercise and beauty pageants have become a staple of student life, delegates said.

Statistics from the Department for Education show that in 2009/10, there were 3,330 exclusions for sexual misconduct. In 2010/11, a further 3,030 children were excluded for the same reason.

The 6,000-plus cases cover lewd behaviour, sexual abuse, assault, bullying, daubing sexual graffiti, and sexual harassment.

The 2010/11 total includes 200 exclusions from primary schools: 190 suspensions and ten expulsions.

There have been warnings that the number of expulsions may only hint at the true scale of the problem.

England’s deputy children’s commissioner has told MPs that head teachers are reluctant to tackle sexual exploitation of children for fear of the message it will send out about their schools.

Sue Berelowitz said schools were not facing up to the fact that some bullying amounts to sexual violence.

There were 2,830 exclusions from secondary schools – 2,760 suspensions and 70 permanent.

A survey by the NSPCC last year found that 30 per cent of secondary school teachers and 11 per cent of primary teachers were aware of incidents of ‘sexually coercive’ behaviour by pupils towards classmates over the past year.

And Floella Benjamin, the former children’s presenter, warned of an ‘epidemic’ of violent online porn which is leading youngsters on a ‘seemingly unstoppable march into a moral wasteland’.

Baroness Benjamin, who sits as a Lib Dem peer, said girls were becoming increasingly sexualised while boys were treating them as little more than ‘sexual objects’.

Lib Dem peer and former children's presenter Floella Benjamin, left, warned that children are being led towards a 'moral wasteland'

Last night Claire Perry, the Prime Minister’s adviser on childhood, said: ‘These statistics on expulsions confirm the uneasy sense that many parents have; that our children are operating in an increasingly sexualised culture which is spilling over into the classroom.

‘We need to be aware of the problem and crack on with plans for family-friendly internet filters, clean wi-fi and improved adult content blocks on mobile phones, as the Government has promised.’

The Daily Mail has been campaigning for tough restrictions on web porn amid fears that it is warping children’s views of sex and relationships.

David Cameron has promised that all new computers will be fitted with web filters unless parents specifically lift them, but no timetable has yet been put in place.

Last week the Association of Teachers and Lecturers heard that girls as young as 13 are taking part in homemade porn movies and 12-year-olds are waxing or shaving intimate areas.

Many agree to boyfriends’ demands to send revealing photos of themselves, only for the images to be shared around or posted online.

Jon Brown of the NSPCC said: ‘We have seen a surge in calls to ChildLine from girls who have been victims of sexual violence, often linked to “sexting” and online pornography.

Teachers need proper training in dealing with this issue and we must educate young people about what is and isn’t acceptable behaviour.’

In December, an investigation by Channel 4 News revealed that boys and girls as young as 13 routinely swap explicit pictures of themselves. Youngsters say the practice has become ‘mundane and mainstream’.

One girl told researchers: ‘I get asked for naked pictures at least two or three times a week’, while another referred to sexting as ‘the new flirting’.

A boy said: ‘You would have seen a girl’s breasts before you’ve seen her face.’

A spokesman for the Department for Education said: ‘Exclusions for sexual misconduct are extremely rare and are decreasing, with these statistics representing less than 0.05 per cent of pupils across the country.

‘Nevertheless we know headteachers take this issue extremely seriously, and this Government has reinforced their powers to tackle poor behaviour, including giving schools the final say on the reinstatement of permanently excluded pupils.’

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