Protestors unaffiliated with Southeastern Oklahoma State University set up in between the Fine Arts and Russell building on Oct. 31, 2016 at approximately noon. Protestors’ signs read, “BLM Are Racist Thugs,” “BLM Rent a Riot,” “Whoremongers & Adulterers God will judge. Hebrews 13:4-Jesus said He Who Marries a Divorced Woman Commits Adultery. Luke 16:18,” and “America: God Hates Your Sin-Fornicators, Adulterers, Divorced, Drunkards, Druggies, Thieves, Gluttons, Whoremongers, Sodomites-HELL FIRE.”

Protestors wore shirts that said, “Alah is Satan,” and “Repent and Believe the Gospel.” Protestors raised their signs to the sky and spewed hateful messages via headset microphone, and several Southeastern students took the bait.

SE student Curtis Rushing said, “I just feel like they wanted us to react negatively and that’s what they got out of us.”

Rushing added, “During those situations we just need to calm down and chill out and do what they don’t want us to do. We need to ignore it really. It’s hard to ignore it especially at this time though. They came here for a reason and they got what they wanted out of it.”

SE student Dustin Carter stated, “ It was crazy. It was hectic for this to happen at Southeastern, you see this at big campuses, but not at Southeastern. It was a wild situation.”

Carter believed the presence of the protestors caused a separation among students and should not have been allowed, “It divided the campus. I don’t think he had the right to hold the sign and have a speaker. It was crazy how the police blocked him off, it was horrible.”

SE student Cherlyn Snow did not believe protestors had the right to judge SE students. Snow said, “I just got off work and I heard noise that sounded like a riot, and I don’t like that on my campus.”

Snow said, “That wasn’t right. That wasn’t right by any means. I want to know who they are to judge us and come to our campus when they have no right to be here. Why are they judging us?”

SE student Josh Nuncio stood behind protestors with a sign that referenced 1 Corinthians 2:15, “The spiritual person judges all things but is himself to be judged by no one.”

Nuncio explained, “I’m just an atheist trying to tell religious people to be cool. Spread love, if you want somebody to be a Christian or be a good Christian, that’s not the way.”

Nuncio added, “All this does is incite violence. This is something people are passionate about, and with everything that has been going on with the cops and the Black Lives Matter Movement, to come out here and say something like that is ridiculous.”

Observers of the protest have documented their initial reactions on social media. SE student Justice Graham posted a Facebook status immediately following the protest, “I’ve never been so taken aback by people who have the audacity to try to influence people with hate and fear.”

“Black Lives Matter. Love Matters. Hate does not. I’m proud of the SE campus for standing up to these ‘men’ in unity and solidarity,” Graham said.

President Sean Burrage responded to the event, “It is definitely legal to protest but what happened here is we got to a point were I felt like the health, safety and welfare of our students was being compromised.”

Burrage emphasized his main priority is the student body of Southeastern. “The safety of our students is my number one priority, and it’s at that point that I ask they be escorted off the property. When I see any of our students’ safety compromised I’m going to put an end to the situation, whatever it takes” Burrage said. Burrage sent out a press release addressing the protest.