Sunday, September 22, 2024

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No judicial action

Students involved with controversial T-shirts paid price with heavy public condemnation

The last thing we at The State News want to do is continually acknowledge the "Wolverines Pack Fudge" slogan that has offended so many people.

The logo of cartoon animals participating in crude sex acts rightfully offended many members of the university community, especially those who identify as lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender or allies.

The concept is ignorant and abhorrent, but the students involved should not be punished by the Department of Student Life.

The T-shirts, their makers and the fliers advertising them were publicly decried by the Alliance of Lesbian, Bi, Gay and Transgender Students, the Residence Halls Association and ASMSU, MSU's undergraduate student government.

Each organization called for public condemnation of the shirt by university officials.

That immediate and harsh condemnation was enough for this situation; a line must be drawn before general speech, however horrible, becomes criminal.

There was no specific threat made or perceived from the logo to any specific person and, therefore, the shirt is no basis for prosecution.

As we said before, there should be criticism from all areas of MSU, to make sure the creators realize their actions were tasteless and will not be tolerated at this university.

That has happened, and no further action should be taken. This issue should be dropped to avoid further trauma to those whom the logo mocked.

Those students involved with the T-shirts realize what they did was wrong, whether it was shown through public apology or from comments written in this newspaper. This is a lesson for all of us that some things can just go too far.

As a community, we needed to reject this insensitive display and should continue to reject anything like it. But now it's time to move forward.

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