Story by Ashley Barrientos, Editor-in-Chief
Photos by Planned Parenthood Generation Action at MTSU
Planned Parenthood Generation Action at Middle Tennessee State University took to their Instagram account on Thursday to tell their followers about an incident in which an MTSU student uploaded a video of herself destroying the organization’s property.
The caption of a post from the PPGA’s official Instagram account reads: “Yesterday, Danielle McInturff, Vice President of Turning Point USA at MTSU violated student disciplinary rule A9, misuse or damage of property. She promoted the destruction of our property by telling pro-life organizations on campus to throw away our signs that only spread information about Project Accessibility, Period. We cannot let her and TPUSA get away with this. By doing this, she is only promoting hatred, while we are on the ground giving students access to free menstrual products on campus.”
The video, which has now been taken down by the original user, shows the student recording herself in one of MTSU’s bathrooms and throwing away a sign for “Project Accessibility, Period,” a PPGA project that supplies free menstrual products to students in 18 locations throughout 13 different buildings on campus.
The student in the video has been identified as the Vice President of Turning Point USA at MTSU, an organization that aims to build powerful conservative networks on high school and college campuses across the country.
The caption of the deleted video reads “We will not be silent. We will not let a evil organization teach our students. We will not let evil win. We will value life, we will teach others to value life.”
PPGA reached out to MTSU Student Organization Services shortly after the video was uploaded, and they were then directed to Laura Sosh-Lightsy, the Assistant Dean of the MTSU Office of Student Conduct.
Sosh-Lightsy notified PPGA that the student had violated Student Conduct Rule A9, which is considered to be “any act of misuse, vandalism, malicious or unwarranted damage or destruction, defacing, disfiguring, or unauthorized use of property belonging to another including, but not limited to, any personal or University property, fire alarms, fire equipment, elevators, telephones, University keys, library materials, and/or safety devices,” according to the University Policy site.
“It’s just extremely heartbreaking that she felt the need to spread her political views to that extent. As much as we disagree with Turning Point and other organizations, we’ve never defaced their property, we’ve never tried to start anything with them and we’ve never thrown away their signs or anything,” said Kelsey Johnson, the president of PPGA and a senior at MTSU.
PPGA attempted to contact the student who uploaded the video, but they have not received any response. Shortly after PPGA uploaded a post saying that the student was in violation of the rule, the video was deleted.
“It’s just obviously very hurtful to me personally because I spend so much time and effort on that project— and all of our members do as well. And the fact that she’s also spreading so much misinformation about Planned Parenthood is disheartening as well, because that’s hurtful to everyone on campus,” said Johnson.
PPGA filed a formal referral regarding the incident on Friday morning, and they are currently waiting to hear back. The organization has reportedly received a large amount of support from MTSU students, and their post addressing the incident has been shared several times.
A member of Turning Point USA said in response to PPGA’s claims, “As Turning Point USA does not take a stance on social issues, such as immigration, abortion or Planned Parenthood, our students’ behavior and actions do not reflect the actions of Turning Point USA, nor does Turning Point USA at MTSU commission any student acts, whether in favor of or against other organizations.”
“All we’re doing is trying to give people free menstrual products on campus. We’re not trying to make people have abortions, we don’t even talk about that kind of stuff,” Johnson said.
The student who reportedly took the video did not respond to comment on this incident.
