Manchester Community College Under Fire After Student Told To Relocate Turning Point USA Table

By Damien Fisher, NH Journal

Manchester Community College forced a student who set up a table with Turning Point USA messaging to relocate because of the content of the messaging.

Now, MCC leaders have been put on notice by a national campus free speech organization that they have crossed a constitutional line.

“As a public institution bound by the First Amendment, MCC may not restrict student speech in public areas based on its content,” Garrett Gravley, campus rights advocacy program counsel for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) said in a letter to MCC.

“We therefore call on MCC to affirm that student expression can occur in all outdoor areas on campus, regardless of its content or viewpoint.”

Gravley sent his letter to MCC President Paul Beaudin this week, demanding answers about why student Samuel Raiti was forced to move his TPUSA table away from the school’s main entrance and into the parking lot.

Samuel Raiti’s TPUSA table that MCC administrators wanted moved.

During the October incident, Raiti, president of MCC’s TPUSA chapter, set up his table outside the main school building. The table did not block the entrance, nor did it obstruct the sidewalk. But it did feature TPUSA merchandise, as well as an image of deceased TPUSA leader Charlie Kirk, and banners with slogans like “Freedom to Try/Grit to Succeed” and “Not Just a Country, A Movement.”

That was enough for MCC Director of Communication and Marketing Vicky Jaffe to tell Raiti he had to relocate.

According to Gravley’s letter, Jaffe told Raiti that because TPUSA is a “political group” that disseminates “political ideas,” he had to move his messaging elsewhere. MCC Vice President of Student Affairs Megan Conn was soon on hand to back up Jaffe and tell the conservative student he had to go.

Neither Beaudin, Jaffe nor Conn responded to NHJournal’s request for comment.

Shannon Reid, MCC’s executive director of government affairs and communications, told NHJournal the college is reviewing FIRE’s letter.

“We’ve received the letter and are reviewing this matter as we strongly support expressive activity and student engagement,” Reid said.

The MCC TPUSA chapter is a recognized student group at the school. While most of the student groups at MCC are nonpolitical in nature, the school also recognizes groups with socially conscious agendas, like MCC Pride for the LGBTQI community and the MCC Students for Environmental Action Club.

According to Gravley’s letter, MCC’s support for Raiti’s right to free speech was less than full-throated. He was given the option to either set up his TPUSA table on a patch of grass on the edge of the school parking lot or in an area inside the school that would be less visible.

“To designate the space between parking lots as an approved ‘free speech zone’ while restricting expressive activity in other outdoor areas of campus violates state law and the First Amendment, and generally offends free speech principles,” Gravley wrote.

Gravley also reminded the college that New Hampshire law expressly prohibits such free speech zones, and MCC’s own policies do not ban political messages from being displayed outside the school’s entrance. FIRE wants MCC to respond by April 1 with confirmation that the school will adhere to the letter and spirit of the First Amendment going forward.

“Colleges are ‘peculiarly ‘the marketplace of ideas,’ and like real marketplaces, ideas cannot flourish in isolated enclaves,” he wrote.

Raiti isn’t the first Granite Stater whose right to free expression has come under fire from left-leaning institutions.

In February, a federal appeals court ruled that Nashua’s Citizens Flagpole policy — used by city officials to block political messages they disliked — amounted to unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination. The city refused to allow citizens to fly the “Pine Tree” flag, a symbol from America’s Revolutionary War era that is often flown by Americans on the political right.

The same appeals court appeared unimpressed by arguments from attorneys defending a lower court ruling giving the Bow School District the right to ban speech protesting boys in girls sports while allowing pro-trans/LGBT messaging on campus. A ruling in that case is expected soon.

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.