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School has shown ‘extreme lack of accountability,’ student group leader says
Oklahoma State University student Jacob Avery recently pleaded guilty to malicious injury to property after vandalizing a Young America’s Foundation student tabling event.
Avery received a six-month unsupervised deferred sentence, meaning the charge could be dismissed if he avoids further trouble during that period, though he must pay nearly $800 in legal fees, according to court documents.
Jacob Avery, 28, disrupted the student tabling event last October, and was caught on video tossing paraphernalia into the air and onto the ground. After trashing the conservative group’s table, Avery told the students to “f**k off.”
The tabling display which upset Avery included a large sign that read, “Marriage = 1 man + 1 woman.”
The YAF students invited Avery to have a discussion with them. “I can’t have a conversation with people who don’t think I deserve rights. You don’t deserve a conversation,” Avery responded.
The OSU chapter announced shortly after that they would be pressing charges to ensure Avery was held accountable. Avery was charged with a misdemeanor for malicious destruction of property.
Following the guilty plea, OSU spokesperson Mack Burke told The College Fix that the university “supports the rights of student groups to express their opinions and speak freely.”
“The OSU Police Department immediately investigated the incident and filed a criminal affidavit with the Payne County District Attorney’s Office,” he said.
Burke declined to comment on any matters explicitly regarding Avery, citing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
Caleb Buxton served as the club’s vice chairman at the time of the incident and currently serves as chairman in his senior year.
Buxton told The Fix that the incident inspired change for the group. “It energized our members to work even harder on campus for the causes we stand for,” he said.
“Seeing the lack of action taken against Avery showed us just how bad things had gotten on our campus, and it helped our members understand how important this fight really is,” he said.
Buxton also said that the Oklahoma State administration’s “inaction and indifference have been by far the most disappointing part of this entire situation.”
He noted that the club reported Avery to the Office of Student Conduct immediately following the incident, but that, as far as they knew, no action had been taken.
Even after police had identified Avery, the chapter had a fifth encounter with the individual, who damaged even more materials at their table. “We reported this to the university as well and still heard nothing,” Buxton said.
The student also told The Fix that incidents like this have been a recurring problem for the group.
“Over the past two years, we have filed more than 15 reports of students vandalizing or destroying our club’s materials, along with a report against Melisa Echols, a university staff member who reprimanded two of our members for their political expression,” he said.
Following a brief leave and reassignment, she currently serves as Coordinator of Student Engagement for the semester, overseeing all student organizations, including YAF. “In every one of these cases, the university never told us whether any action was taken,” he said.
Buxton believes the university has shown “an extreme lack of accountability for the actions of both its staff and its students,” but he still encourages conservative students to always speak up for their beliefs.
Rob Tandy, media coordinator for national YAF, told The Fix that while the organization did not offer direct legal assistance to the OSU chapter, it provided general guidance and helped amplify their story in the media.
Tandy said that these incidents are fairly common, pointing to the recent vandalism of an American flag display at a California school that paid tribute to 9/11 victims.
“This is an issue that especially conservative students face on college campuses, but we tell our students to continue to be bold, continue to go out on your campuses and advocate for your conservative values,” Tandy said.
YAF’s main mission, he told The Fix, is to give students the “resources and ability” to do just that, “whether that’s popular or not with the administrators and other school members.”
Tandy added that YAF does occasionally get involved in lawsuits, and that they provide activism training for their students to equip them with advocacy tools “in a constructive fashion.”
