WEST LIBERTY– On the evening of September 19th, WLU Students For Democracy (SFD) exercised their First Amendment right to peacefully assemble on their quad in opposition of ICE being on their campus. Members of the Ohio Valley community joined the students to show their support for the movement.

The protest was a collaboration between SFD and Madison Buxton, the president of Bethany College’s Political Science club.

“We met Maddie at a previous protest. We thought that because of our proximity and their Political Science club, we would have a
good partnership,” said Sage Cassata, Vice President of SFD.

The protest was split into two separate days: one was on September 18th at Bethany Memorial Church, and the other was on September 19th on West Liberty’s Campus Quad. The protests ended up having just under 100 people in attendance between the two days.

“I was really happy about that because it lets people know that what they’re feeling, they’re not alone in it. I think a lot of us may feel apathetic or even scared to speak out, and just having that community helps,” Cassata said.

The protests received a mixture of possible and negative reactions on social media. “I was expecting counter protesters to show up,

but I feel that everyone who remained civil and followed campus rules had a right to be there and I supported that right. We
were prepared to do any de-escalation that was needed. We were prepared to do to keep everyone safe,” Cassata said.

Even though no counter protests ended up taking place, SFD had enlisted the help of both West Liberty Campus Police and the ACLU to keep everyone in attendance safe.

Students for Democracy plans to host a variety of events throughout the semester and will be meeting every Monday at 3 pm in Elbin Library, room L19.

Bethany College would like it to be known that they do not endorse the club’s actions and is in no way involved in the events that took place.