Joe Sobecki wasn’t convinced the bill, Free the Jena 6, should be passed. Not all the facts were there. They conflicted with each other too much.
“The whole story isn’t being told,” the Weinberg freshman said. “There are two stories to this.”
There were also two sides to the story of the bill that would call for the Northwestern student body to take a stance on the Jena 6 in Jena, La.
Is the Jena 6 incident something the ASG Senate – and the Northwestern community – should condemn? Or is it an inappropriate topic for debate in the ASG Senate?
At the meeting’s end, one story won: The bill passed with a 75 percent majority. The bill, on behalf of NU students and ASG, called for all criminal charges to be dropped against the six black teenagers who have been charged with battery and conspiracy.
It also called for the resignation of the district attorney and the Jena School District superintendent, and an investigation of the judge involved in the case.
Weinberg sophomore Brittany Smith introduced the bill, which condemned the charges against the Jena 6 on behalf of the Northwestern student body.
Sobecki said he thought the case, which made national headlines this fall, had factual inconsistencies, such as the noose hangings at Jena High School.
“One of the students (at the high school) said it had to do with the rodeo club,” he said.
Jesse Yang, a Weinberg sophomore who is part of the NU Coalition to Free the Jena Six, persuaded the Senate to pass the bill by describing the details of the case.
“Three nooses hung from that … tree,” Yang said. “Nooses that hung for an uglier meaning under that tree, nooses that stood for memories of Jim Crow justice and blacks being hanged and mutilated as crowds of white on-lookers stared on. If that is not a message of hate, then I for one, don’t know what is.”
The bill raised questions of relevance in the ASG Senate.
Weinberg junior Will Upton brought up the Kalvin Report, a University of Chicago document that stated a university should be treated as a corporation and should not take a political stance. Upton argued that taking a political stance might cause harm to future campus activism.
“The NU Coalition to Free Jena Six is a great example of what student activism is on this campus,” he said. “Enacting this resolution may harm discussion and activism on campus.”
SESP senior Ivy LeTourneau also argued that it wasn’t the university’s place to be involved in the Jena 6 issue.
“We shouldn’t even be considering politically weighted bills in ASG,” she said.
LeTourneau instead motioned to table the bill. The motion failed to win a majority of the votes. Senators then voted to pass the bill.
Smith, who submitted the bill, said it was important for ASG to be able to pass political bills.
“I’m really excited,” she said. “It’s good ASG can make that kind of statement.”
For Members Only President Mark Crain spoke strongly for the approval of the bill.
“Students across this country have a voice and obligation against any kind of injustice,” Crain said.
Crain said that while passing this bill served as a symbolic purpose for the student body and ASG, FMO will begin working to gain support by writing to legislators and working with other schools to gain support and call for criminal charges to be dropped.
“I think tonight students spoke out against injustice,” the Weinberg junior said. “The voice of students historically has been an incredible movement for change.”
Reach Pritish Behuria at [email protected] and Alice Truong at [email protected].