WHAS11.com | Students stage sit-in for free speech

These Bellarmine students are cramming for exams, but there're doing it outside the dean's office. They're here with a purpose. There have been forums, e-mails and public disgust. Now, in a sit-in the university is hearing from the other side. “I support the right to express beliefs and that’s what I’m here for,” says student Chris Polito. It started with an armband with an emblem that resembles a swastika. Andrei Chira started wearing it around campus. “What it represents is my support for this group, Blood & Honour, which is dedicated to providing a musical community for National Socialist bands,” Chira says. “It does not represent neo-Nazi beliefs. It definitely represents National Socialist beliefs, and the two are different.” “These views represented by the armband are repugnant and are contrary to all the values of the university. But we believe in free speech,” says Hunt Helm, vice president of university relations. The armband has sparked an e-mail frenzy, but the university says it won’t tell Chira to remove it. Some students aren't convinced Chira won't be asked to take the armband off, so that's why they were there Monday. siehe auch: Filmbeitrag; White-supremacist symbol spurs college controversy. A Bellarmine University task force will study what constitutes acceptable speech on campus, prompted by a white-supremacist armband worn by a student, President Joseph J. McGowan said yesterday