José, organizer with Student’s Committee for Defense & Solidarity, led a meeting earlier on Monday to run through the plan to disrupt McInnes and Stein’s event on campus. Photo by Tess Owen
Right-wing troll Alex Stein arrived on Penn State campus and riled up the student protesters ahead of his “comedy” show with Proud Boy founder Gavin Mcinnes. Photo by Tess Owen
Hundreds of students and their allies turned out to protest the “Stand Back & Stand By” event on Penn State campus. Photo by Tess Owen.
Penn State deployed officers on horseback to control the crowds of student protesters. Photo by Tess Owen
Video journalist Ford Fischer was pepper sprayed, along with other members of the media and student protesters, by a group of far-right agitators. Photo by Tess Owen.
In an email to the student body sent Tuesday morning, Penn State president Neeli Bendapudi recognized that Stein’s initial incursion into the student’s protest “raised the tension,” and in doing so, “contributed to the very violence that compromised their ability to speak.” She then added that Stein and McInnes would “celebrate a victory for being canceled” and scolded the student protesters. “The message too many people will walk away with is that one can manipulate people to generate free publicity,” Bendapudi wrote, “or that one can restrict speech by escalating protest to violence.” A spokesperson for the university told VICE News that law enforcement was “not aware of any credible threats of violence related to this event” though police planned for “the worst-case scenario.” At least one student was arrested. Follow Tess Owen on Twitter.Correction: A previous version of this story identified an athletic field as belonging to Penn State. It belonged to a high school.