Conservative students at the 5Cs are facing intimidation and threats, and The Student Life has repeatedly chosen to downplay, ignore, or distort that reality.
On September 11th, 2025, at a memorial honoring the murdered Charlie Kirk, a student interrupted the service to antagonize the individuals who were mourning. This was not a debate but harassment at a vigil. The disruption escalated to the point that the student had to be escorted away. Security had been arranged in advance because organizers anticipated aggression.
In the aftermath, anonymous Fizz posts circulated online stating that conservative students should be doxed and attacked. Statements include “First and last names of the people at the Charlie Kirk vigil?”, “Does anyone know if they left the poster there so I can vandalize it?”, and “GET A BETTER PIC I WANT THEIR FACES”. Several images of participants at the vigil were spread with accompanying comments like “Clearest face” and “Tell me where their dorms are I will find them”.
These were not political critiques, they were explicit calls for violence directed at identifiable students.
This is not new in any capacity. After the Claremont College Republicans ran a table at a 5Cs club fair on September 3rd, 2025, a post circulated, “We jugging the republicans after club fair.” Jugging refers to a criminal act wherein perpetrators observe individuals withdrawing money from their bank and subsequently follow them to steal the cash.
Following a Turning Point USA tabling event on September 25th, 2025, students in TPUSA were threatened. In response to the event, one user posted, “The american way (allegedly): THE ONLY GOOD FASCIST … IS A DEAD ONE” — a slogan which has become increasingly popular in anti-ICE demonstrations. Another student posted, “I think everyone should shoot their shot more.” A commenter followed up with, “at the TPUSA kids?” One user directly reached out to me on Instagram, asking “Have you ever been raped? Maybe you should be.”
Peaceful students on a college campus were experiencing threats of attack, rape, and murder. I anticipated that these events would be considered shocking and would be covered by The Student Life newspaper.
However, this was not the case.
The Student Life’s coverage of the Charlie Kirk vigil presented the disruption and harassment by an agitator as being instigated by a mourner. The article included quotes from other hecklers suggesting that the agitator’s removal was the club silencing free speech on campus. This event was a memorial for a murdered father, not a venue for debate, but nevertheless protestors were permitted. Only one student was removed because their disruption was such that the event was unable to continue with their presence and several club members were concerned that their continued presence would escalate into physical confrontation. The Student Life misrepresented these events in such a way that readers of the article are likely to conclude that the students at a vigil for a victim of political assassination were to blame for the situation. By contrast, an article published in The Claremont Independent, “Students Hold Vigil for Charlie Kirk Despite Disruption and Online Harassment”, acknowledged both the threats on Fizz and fairly represented the event disruptions.
The harassment of students after the TPUSA tabling event on September 25th, 2025 was not covered by The Student Life at all.
At a TPUSA tabling event on February 26th, 2026 student reporters, including a reporter from the TSL, asked members of the club for interviews. These students gave extensive statements. In The Student Life’s article about the event, it published that club members “declined to comment.” This is a lie. Club members spoke on the record, answered questions, and shared their positions to several student reporters. At least one club member spoke to the reporter from The Student Life. As a tabler at the event, I watched my friends speak to various reporters. I made comments to reporters myself. The only request made by club members to reporters was that club members’ last names not be published. This is a reasonable precaution in light of documented harassment and threats. Furthermore, while TPUSA student leaders cannot currently make statements on behalf of the organization, members can provide personal perspective. The Student Life presented the inability of students to speak on behalf of the organization as an inability for some students to comment and presented requests for anonymity as refusal by other students to comment.
The Student Life’s misrepresentation of club members is not a minor editorial oversight. When students speak and are then publicly described as having refused to speak, their attitude on dialogue is misrepresented. Meanwhile, the article included quotes from other students labeling the organization “white supremacist” and “fascist.” Publishing inflammatory accusations while omitting both the accused’s responses and the threats they face is not neutral reporting, it is narrative framing.
Journalism carries ethical obligations: to seek truth and report it, to minimize harm, and to present subjects accurately. If a student publication is willing to publish accusations that fellow students are “fascists,” it bears a responsibility to accurately represent those students’ responses and to contextualize the hostility they face. Minimizing harm does not mean protecting one ideological narrative while exposing another group of students to heightened risk.
Failing to report on the threats and aggression conservative students face calls into question the integrity of The Student Life. Misrepresenting events is malpractice.
Conservative students should not have to choose between participating in public events and protecting themselves from threats, nor should they have to worry that the student newspaper will misrepresent them. The Student Life and other college newspapers need to ask themselves whether some students are treated as full members of the academic community or as acceptable targets.
Grace Rutherford PO ’28
TSL accepts submissions for guest pieces and letters to the editor from community members at tsl.news/submitor by email to editor@tsl.news.
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