Confrontation with UCSB Professor

UCSB Professor Acts Violently
Assaults 16 year old, steals and destroys private property, and
attempts to incite a mob on campus

Santa Barbara, CA,

March is hailed as Women’s History Month. The last thing Joan and Thrin Short expected to encounter was violence from a female Feminist Studies professor when they organized a peaceful pro-life outreach at UC Santa Barbara on March 3, 2014. The sisters, experienced Survivors activists, along with 11 friends, mostly Thomas Aquinas College students, displayed three signs with images of abortion victims along a main campus walkway, distributed pro-life pamphlets and invited passing students to talk .

Soon after setting up, 16 year old Thrin engaged a female student in conversation. Thrin walked the student around to the back of the sign to show her statistics and diagrams printed on it,  while Sarah, a girl new to activism, held the sign.  Nearby, 21 year old Joan distributed pamphlets.

Thrin’s conversation was cut abruptly cut short when an African American woman began shouting.  Standing in front of the sign, she shouted that abortion was a woman’s right and that the pro-life students should attend her feminist studies class.  She was later identified as Mireille Miller-Young, a professor of Feminist Studies at UC Santa Barbara, whose emphasis is black cultural studies, pornography, and sex work.

Professor Young continued to shout without letting anyone answer her questions or arguments. She quickly gathered a crowd of about fifteen students.  The student Thrin had been talking with joined the crowd.  Whenever Young paused for breath, one of her crowd would produce a pro-abortion slogan, but when Joan, Thrin, or any of their friends tried to answer, Young started shouting again.  She led her crowd in chanting: “Tear down the sign, tear down the sign!”

When the chant faded, Joan and Thrin each drew a student from the crowd into a one on one conversation, trying to break the mob mentality. Clearly frustrated, Professor Young shouted, “They’re trying to separate us, don’t talk to them.” Joan, Thrin, and their friends calmly continued their conversations until they heard a general shout and turned to see that Young, in an attempt to regain the students’ attention, had grabbed the sign out of Sarah’s hand. Clare, another friend of Joan’s, managed to grab it, too, but Joan told her to let go in order to avoid a wrestling match.

Professor Young’s mob dwindled after she stole the sign.  She paraded across the campus with two female students carrying the sign.  Joan and Thrin followed, Thrin video-taping and Joan on the phone with the police.

The parade weaved through two buildings and entered an elevator in the third.  Thrin attempted to get on the elevator with them, but Young blocked the doorway.  Thrin stuck her foot in the door, but Young pushed it out with her foot.  Tenaciously Thrin put it back.  This happened several times as Thrin pleaded with the students to not get involved.  “The police are on their way,” she told them, “you don’t want to be with Professor Young.”  

Suddenly Young reached out and pushed 16 year old Thrin. “Don’t touch me!”  Thrin cried, startled. Young’s long fingernails scratched Thrin’s arm.  Young pushed Thrin twice more and each time Thrin kept the door from closing with her arm.  Finally, Young got out of the elevator, and tried to pull Thrin away from the elevator door.  Thrin held onto the elevator with her other hand, the one holding the camera.  Realizing that students were trying to take the camera out of her hand, Thrin let go of the elevator.

The elevator doors closed.  Professor Young let go of Thrin, leaving several scratches on her arms, and got on another elevator.  Then the police arrived.

Scratches left by Professor Young on Thrin's left arm.

Scratches left by Professor Young on Thrin's right arm.

The police did not seem overly concerned about the incident until they saw the video and realized how violent the professor had been. Police identified the assailant and found the remains of the sign - it had been destroyed. UC Santa Barbara police are completing their report to be submitted for prosecution.

This month, we celebrate the accomplishments of courageous women in history.  It is ironic that a female professor - who claims to be pro-woman - would resort to theft and violence against another woman in her attempt to silence a different point of view, all during Women’s History Month.

Despite the violence, neither Thrin nor Joan are deterred from leading future pro-life outreaches.  Both young women are Survivors-trained and credit Survivors’ events as their inspiration.

“Survivors leadership are very proud of Joan, and her sister, Thrin Short, who at 16 years old, not only led a successful event, but handled one of the ‘worst case scenarios’ of pro-life activism with courage and poise,” says Kristina Garza, Director of Campus outreach for Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust. “She led students even older than herself, to take action to end abortion, and when confronted with anger and violence, she responded calmly and wisely.”

Read Joan's testimony from this incident here!

Watch the video of the incident below:

 

Charges Filed Against Radical Pro-Abortion Professor!

March 22, 2014 - The Santa Barbara District Attorney filed charges of grand theft, battery, and vandalism yesterday against Professor Mireille Miller-Young for violence she committed against pro-life activists, Thrin and Joan Short, who held a peaceful outreach on the UC Santa Barbara campus on March 4th.

Read our press release here.

Is UC Santa Barbara condoning violence by radical professors and students?

University’s silence and a leaked university memo say “Yes”!

March 25, 2014 - Even though the radical UC Santa Barbara Professor, Mireille Miller-Young, who stole property from and assaulted peaceful activists on March 4, has been charged with 3 misdemeanors, the University has remained silent.  No discipline has been announced, not even an acknowledgment of the hateful actions and intolerance of the professor and students. Why is the University silent?

Read the leaked memo from Vice Chancellor Michael Young that reveals the University's hate-filled perspective.

Read our press release here.

Please take a minute to sign the petition calling on the 
University of California Santa Barbara to protect peaceful protest. 

There is a time to turn the other cheek when we are wronged for our faith.  Then there are times to call out for justice as the Apostle Paul did claiming his Roman citizenship.

Why?  To spread the message!  Survivors was not the one wronged in the incident described below, nor was it Joan and Thrin Short!  So who was wronged?  The babies!

Joan and Thrin were at UCSB to plead the cause of the innocent.  They were attacked for speaking the truth about abortion not because of anything else.  When the professor tried to incite the students to riot and eventually attacking the girls it was the message she was trying to silence!

For this reason we must use every avenue to protect peaceful protest because God has blessed with a nation where we have the right to speak freely and we must defend that right!

Not for our own sake but for the sake of those we are advocates for!  To turn the other cheek is to make it about ourselves and it is not about us, or Joan and Thrin, it is about the babies.

So please join us in protecting peaceful protest for the sake of those being led to the slaughter. (Proverbs 24:11)  Sign the petition now and please forward it to your friends - so babies may live!