At Stanford University this week, an argument between students at an event supporting Brett M. Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court descended into a physical confrontation that prompted a police response.
Several media outlets reported that John Rice-Cameron, president of the campus’s chapter of the College Republicans, called the police to report being shoved by another student. No one appeared to have been injured in the dispute, first reported by The Stanford Daily, but the police did issue a student, Melinda Hernandez, a citation for battery.
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At Stanford University this week, an argument between students at an event supporting Brett M. Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court descended into a physical confrontation that prompted a police response.
Several media outlets reported that John Rice-Cameron, president of the campus’s chapter of the College Republicans, called the police to report being shoved by another student. No one appeared to have been injured in the dispute, first reported by The Stanford Daily, but the police did issue a student, Melinda Hernandez, a citation for battery.
The College Republicans wrote on Facebook that the event was illustrative of the “unhinged Stanford left.”
“Our president is pressing full charges against Hernandez,” read a post on the group’s Facebook page. “Violence is completely unacceptable, and we will not allow anyone to get away with it.”
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When asked for comment, E.J. Miranda, a Stanford spokesman, pointed to a statement from Susie Brubaker-Cole, vice provost for student affairs, and Lauren Schoenthaler, senior associate vice provost for institutional equity and access. In it they write that the confrontation needed to be discussed further and that the university would be reaching out to student groups to start that conversation.
“It was another instance of the challenges that lie at the intersection of two very important principles in our campus community — the fostering of an inclusive community and the free expression of ideas,” the statement says.
Miranda told the Daily that the university was providing support to “all parties involved in this incident.”
‘Beers 4 Brett’
Protests over Kavanaugh have been common on college campuses following the justice’s controversial confirmation to the Supreme Court, after he had been accused by multiple women of sexual misconduct. Conservative students on several campuses nationally have hosted their own rallies in support of him.
Back at Stanford, the Daily reported that Hernandez had confronted the group, and that’s when the physical incident occurred. Rice-Cameron described it as a “push” or a “shove.” Hernandez said that it was a “touch” and that she had acted because Rice-Cameron would not stop filming her.
At some point, the police arrived and issued Hernandez the citation. The Daily reported that Rice-Cameron said he planned to press charges against Hernandez.
Neither Hernandez nor Rice-Cameron immediately responded to The Chronicle’s requests for comment.
Rice-Cameron, son of Susan Rice, who served as President Barack Obama’s national-security adviser, is no stranger to campus-politics controversies. He was involved in a series of emails obtained by the Dailyin which Niall Ferguson, a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, suggested that he and another conservative student dig up “opposition research” on a progressive student leader. In one message, Rice-Cameron wrote, “Slowly, we will crush the Left’s will to resist, as they will crack under pressure.”
Chris Quintana was a breaking-news reporter for The Chronicle. He graduated from the University of New Mexico with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing.