Insanity: Students Frightened by Beach Ball that Represents Free Speech

Quick, somebody get Susan Powter back from the ‘90s and have her “Stop the Insanity!”

by Trey Sanchez

It never ceases to amaze us that the bar of stupidity can be raised any higher on American college campuses. But some students at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville just went up at least ten notches.

According to video obtained by Campus Reform, a beach ball — yes, a beach ball!! — frightened students so much they called the cops to stop a free speech event which used the inflatable toy as a prop. Campus police told the organizers of the Turning Point USA/Young Americans for Liberty event that they had received “multiple complaints” that the beach ball was scaring students.

The police argued with the conservative students that where they were displaying the ball was not a public place even though it is a public university, but it was just too hard for everyone to process why a beach ball was so horrifying.

A bystander asked the officers, “People are scared of the beach ball?”

“Yeah,” the officer said, adding, “People are reporting that they’re scared of the beach ball, and what’s going on here.”

When the officer was asked what could possibly be scary about a beach ball, the officer said he couldn’t interpret someone else’s feelings.

“I’m not going to try to infringe on your Constitutional rights, but at the same time everybody else around here has rights also,” the officer added. “And they have a right to go to and from class, and not feel intimidated by what you’re representing or your ball.”

In the end, it was agreed upon that the conservative students could keep their beach ball in view as long as it was kept off the sidewalk. A university administrator said the pro-First Amendment students didn’t follow proper procedure for their display.

But the details don’t really matter when young adults are afraid of air and plastic! Are institutes of higher learning even interested in students learning anything?