(The Center Square) – A student organization that has spoken out against the University of Illinois’ vaccination mandate is gearing up for dozens of college campus fights this fall semester.
Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) said it is fighting “tyranny and advancing the cause of liberty at schools where constitutional rights are currently threatened.”
From circulating petitions to organizing protests, YAL said it is determined to defend First and Second Amendment rights.
Students and faculty at U of I campuses in Champaign-Urbana, Springfield and Chicago are required to receive the COVID-19 vaccine or submit to weekly testing, something YAL chief of staff Sean Themea called unfair.
“They’re an age demographic that is among the least likely to have complications from getting sick, and yet they have had their bodily autonomies stripped away with these vaccine mandates and mask mandates,” Themea said.
The organization also plans student rights campaigns at the University of Hartford for its vaccine mandate, Florida State University in an effort to eliminate a pepper spray ban, and at Southeast Missouri State University to end alcohol prohibition.
The group made headlines in 2021, when a video in support of Kyle Rittenhouse was censored and then removed by TikTok before ultimately being restored. According to YAL, no explanation was given for the removal of the video beyond accusing it of containing “illegal activities and regulated goods,” likely referring to the image of Rittenhouse carrying his gun during civil unrest in Kenosha, Wis., in 2020.
The group is projected to represent over 5,000 student activists at more than 500 colleges and universities around the country.
“YAL’s Student Rights Campaigns have already shown success in their first year,” said JP Kirby, YAL’s director of Student Rights. “We’ve got big plans for the program’s second year of action: More types of tyranny attacked, more methods to pressure administrators, more effective activism from our students. I feel sorry for the campus bureaucrats who are about to find themselves facing pressure from these activists.”
