At the Shepard Symposium for Social Justice, students Tyrell Proby, Desmin Lewis, and Jerard Swan presented a public service announcement about concealed carry laws and stereotypes, allegedly inciting threatening comments from Wyoming Senator Anthony Bouchard.
The students created the PSA for an English class taught by Allison Gernant, English and Synergy Professor. Gernant said the project was well received by most the audience, but that the senator disapproved.
“It seemed that he had very passionate views about second amendment rights but it also seemed that he perhaps didn’t come to the presentation in the capacity of listener,” Gernant said.
Proby said the PSA was well-researched and intended to educate the audience about the relationship between concealed carry permit holders and stereotyping, especially regarding young black men.
“It was about how concealed carry holders should go through a more advanced process through which they can get a permit to carry a gun.”
Lewis said the students were not advocating for guns to be taken away from people, but instead for more comprehensive screening and training processes.
“We don’t want to take away guns,” Lewis said. “We believe that the real threats to society are uneducated or maybe mentally unstable people who have concealed carry.”
Proby and Lewis claim, Senator Bouchard approached them after the presentation and unprofessionally accosted them about their presentation.
“He’d get off topic about gangbangers in Chicago or how Treyvon Martin was just one incident and how that would never happen in Wyoming, but the thing is, we’re trying to prevent and be proactive rather than reactive,” Lewis said. “He proceeded to just be aggressive with everything he was saying.”
Gernant said that these comments included threats to cut funding to her position and program.
“He wanted to know my name and my job so that he could defund my position and I felt that was really inappropriate and unethical,” Gernant said.
Gernant and her students said the lack of professionalism they felt Senator Bouchard displayed surprised them.
“We felt, after learning that he was a senator, that he really wasn’t attending to any kind of civic discourse, that he really wasn’t listening and seeing their side of the story,” Gernant said. ”I think we really expect from elected officials that they are attentive to their constituents and that they listen to Wyomingites, even if they disagree, maybe especially if they disagree.”
After the incident, Senator Bouchard posted about the incident on his Facebook page.
“This is what happens when you invade the space of a SnowFlake Instructor,” Bouchard said in a Facebook post.
Bouchard also posted a picture of Gernant and students with the caption, “Instructor ALLISON GERNANT @ Univ of Wyoming. She’s proud of her students pushing for more gun control – ‘Concealed carry a threat against minorities…’ You just can’t make this stuff up! *BTW, the students are good kids, they are just being steered by a liberal teacher.”
Proby said Bouchard posted he and his classmates’ full names and pictures without their permission.
Michelle Jarman, Shepard Symposium on Social Justice co-chair said that the students and Gernant were accosted by Senator Bouchard.
“We certainly understand that people on campus and around the state have very different views, in this case, about gun laws and necessary training and we encourage spirited discussion at the symposium,” Jarman said. “At the same time, Bouchard didn’t really listen to the student presentation, so his reaction to their work was inappropriate and ill-informed.”
Lewis said Bouchard was against their ideas about concealed carry because he does not trust the UWPD.
“He literally said that he wants to bring a bomb to UW, set it off, and see how long it takes for UWPD to respond,” Lewis said.
Lewis said Bouchard refused to shake Gernant’s hand after the encounter and uttered further threats to her position at the university.
“Senator Bouchard was aggressive, disrespectful, and even bullying in his comments, threatening to de-fund the instructor’s class,” Jarman said. “This was especially unfortunate because public educational events at the university are designed to bring students, faculty, and community members together in shared interests and conversation.”
Jarman said the students and staff involved acted in a manner that represented the Symposium and the university well.
“We expect people to share their views in informed and respectful ways, Jarman said. In this case, the students modeled this kind of mature and civil discourse and Senator Bouchard modeled the opposite.”
Jarman said she has been happy with the response to this incident.
“As an organizer of the symposium, I have been most concerned about the students and their instructor, all of whom were accosted by Senator Bouchard,” Jarman said. “I have been pleased by the institutional and public support of the students and hope this incident will increase all of our commitment to civil public discourse.”
According to UW president Laurie Nichols’ Monday Message, the incident is under investigation. The students and Gernant presented the PSA to Nichols last Wednesday. Gernant said this was a very positive experience for all involved.
“I think the president wanted to get the full scope of what had happened, and I really appreciated it and the students really appreciated it,” Gernant said. “She really showed what leaders can do. That was the model of dignity and a space of open academic discourse and freedom for these students where they could present their research on a topic they cared about.”
Gernant said that she hopes this incident will inspire a return to civil discourse about controversial topics.
“I hope that we recognize in Wyoming that there are some really complicated, very divisive issues that we need to keep having open forums for and keep talking about,” Gernant said. “We can’t stop just because it’s hard. We just have to remember how to have civic discourse.You can listen, and you can disagree, but there’s a way to disagree and not be threatening and menacing.”
Brouchard declined to comment.
