Dec. 26 (UPI) — A New England college has asked a student to remove an anti-Nazi sign from her window.
Nicole Parsons — a junior at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst — put a sign in her window that read “F— Nazis,” and “You are not welcome here” in response to someone drawing a swastika over a “Happy Hanukkah” message on the door of a resident assistant, NBC News reported.
A week after putting the sign in her window, Parsons got this email from the college asking her to take down the sign: “While Residence Education cannot force you or your roommate to take the sign down, I am asking that you or your roommate take the sign down so that all students can be a part of an inclusive residential experience, as well as having a respectful environment to be a part of here on our campus,” Eddie Papazoni, a resident director at UMass Amherst, said to Parsons in an email, BuzzFeed News reported.
Parsons responded with this: “I was in absolute shock. This email tells me the university cares more about the feelings of Nazis than the safety of their students.”
After her roommate expressed concern over the attention the sign brought to their room, Parsons removed it from their window.
UMass later issued this note on its Facebook wall: “A student placed a sign in their window that said, ‘F— Nazis.’ A poorly worded email from Residence Life staff asking students to take down the sign does not reflect the values of the campus, and it should not have been sent. UMass Amherst emphatically rejects Nazis, and any other hate group, a view expressed in the students’ sign. However, we are sensitive to the use of profanity, which some could find inappropriate. The university respects the students’ right to display the sign and it may remain up.”
Since September, the school has tracked 19 hate crime reports on campus.
