Students unite in support against offensive signs posted on FGCU campus

The Jewish Community Center is responding to deeply offensive signs posted on a college campus, and the school is telling whoever posted those signs they are not welcome.

Three signs depicting Adolf Hitler and one ugly message were posted on the Florida Gulf Coast University campus over the weekend. Now, there’s a unified response from students on campus.

Izubee Charles is a senior, and says, “Kind of unsettled, because you never want to see something like that especially how strong of a message it was.”

And freshman Holly Syllaba said, “It’s kind of disappointing that people are still doing something like this.”

The signs and the person who posted them will not stop Rabbi Mendel Gordon with Chabad at FGCU. He spoke with students from all backgrounds to show unity.

“Focus on the positive and grow, adding more goodness, more positivity, more good deeds and kindness,” Gordon said.

The university will not talk about its active investigation. Whether there is surveillance video if investigators have a suspect, or if they believe that person is a student.

But university president Mike Martin did say this kind of speech is not acceptable on campus, “People are already feeling threatened by the world we live in. They need not feel threatened by someone from on campus, or off, I think in this particular instance, there seems to be evidence that this is an off-campus group because they have done this elsewhere.”

When he says elsewhere, President Martin means at other universities.

Senior Nathen Garcia said there needs to be conversations, “in a way that informs people and helps people understand the significance of what they’re doing and how it makes this campus an unsafe place for other people and how it affects others that they don’t even want to go to campus.”

President Martin's Statement on Offensive Messages
Also read it here: https://t.co/4iU8zN40UC pic.twitter.com/KkwQbCQxM5

— Florida Gulf Coast University (@fgcu) November 1, 2020