Students shorten the GAP

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It took little persuasion to recruit students to participate in yesterday’s counter protest against the Genocide Awareness Project.

Students parked themselves across the lawn near the Hall of Science, holding signs with phrases including, “My oppression is not your moral battleground” and “I am paying $4,000 for this?”

As time went on, the crowd grew larger and louder.

“It’s not the church! It’s not the state! Women should decide their fate!” they shouted in unison.

Every year, the Catholic Newman Club invites the GAP to campus to convince students that abortion is immoral under almost every circumstance. Their displays of aborted fetuses and racial genocide caused a stir of complaints by students.

Little has ever been done to speak against the organization. However, once students were provided the opportunity, they released their bottled resentment once and for all.

All it took was poster paper, markers and a station next to the GAP. This station was provided by Safe Space CSU, a student group that was initially comprised of only four students: Victoria Villa, Sarah Kannel, Jada Esters and Claire Erbeznick.

One event from last year triggered these women to take action. While Villa, Kannel and Esters attended their Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies class, Women of Color, they could see posters as tall as the trees featuring aborted fetuses and victims of genocide and slavery just outside the classroom.

At the same time the GAP was present on campus, Professor Maythee Rojas lectured on forced sterilization of women of color in Southern California.

Deeply disturbed, Villa, Kannel and Esters expressed their frustrations to their professor, who responded, “If you are that upset, do something.”

As a result, Safe Space CSU was born.

While the GAP is on campus, Safe Space CSU will be stationed in an area next to them, directing students to mental health services and providing sign-constructing materials. Counselors will also be available from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Leadership Resource Center of the University Student Union.

Villa, Kannel and Esters wanted more than just a counter protest. They wanted additional mental health services to be more easily accessible for students walking by the GAP demonstration.

Weeks after their initial discussion with Rojas, they researched the GAP and developed an essay proposing their demands.

Villa admitted to knocking on every door of Student Life and Development. She said that she didn’t call because she wanted to catch them off guard and see their reactions to her questions.

ASI President Jose Salazar received their essay and forwarded it to all of the senators. Only one responded: Vanessa Coover.

“As an ASI student leader and a student, I wanted to make sure that students had mental health resources readily available to them when traumatized and affected by the graphic images that GAP shows,” she noted. “The truth of the matter is, the GAP display is not healthy for students. It is time that something was done to help our students effectively process their thoughts and feelings.”

Coover helped Safe Space CSU draft resolutions, develop warning flyers and promote the group on KBeach. She also acts as the middleman between the group and the faculty, who are more difficult to reach.

“This is not just a ‘women’s’ problem,’’ Villa said. “This affects a lot of people. I heard a story of how a classmate of mine cried in her car for three hours. She couldn’t even get out of the parking lot. Clearly, something is wrong if all these people are expressing how devastated they are by this.”

Members of the student community have expressed that the images are triggering, causing them to feel anxious and sometimes act out hysterically. Villa noted they are especially sensitive to the veteran population who battle with post-traumatic stress disorder, and those who have had abortions performed or experienced sexual abuse.

These symptoms are severe enough to affect their class performance. Some students are so bothered that they cannot attend class at all.

Esters also said she feels too uncomfortable to bring her 7-year-old daughter on campus on the days that the GAP is there. She, too, avoids entering that part of campus because it upsets her.

Counseling and Psychological Services are available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. to consult students experiencing personal challenges. There is also 24-hour access to a counselor by phone. When traumatic events that affect the student population take place, CAPS has limited availability, and it could take more than an hour for walk-ins to speak to a counselor.

Last year, Kannel participated in a small protest against the GAP with Unite for Reproductive Gender Equality, a student club that promotes the protection of reproductive rights. Students gave her high-fives as they walked by, but members of the GAP did not appear pleased. The first day Kannel was there, one GAP member approached her.

“What particularly bothered me last year was that they had put up a sign that said black women got the most abortions, and black women killed more black people than the [Ku Klux Klan],” she said. “And they co-opted the Black Lives Matter movement.”

Kannel asked the GAP member, “Who inspired the tag Black Lives Matter?” and she could not provide that answer. They also had a sign that said, “I can’t breathe.” The woman also had no knowledge of where that quote was taken from.

She responded, “That would be a question for her,” and pointed at a black woman who was also a GAP member.

The mission for Safe Space CSU is to ensure a secure environment for the CSULB community to voice their opinions. At yesterday’s protest, these ideas included reproductive rights, sexual freedom, anti-discrimination, Black Lives Matter and much more.

“It is a freedom-of-speech lawn, and [the school] wants to promote the exchange of ideas,” Kannel said. “Well, both arguments should be there, right? We just want the students to have accurate information and not feel ashamed.”

For more information, visit facebook.com/SafeSpaceCSULB.