SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: ... to discuss moving forward. I did not receive your responses to the grievances by five p.m. last night so this is the next step. Essentially, right now, we're going to try to come to some type of resolution --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] Okay, is this a student conduct hearing then?
[all speakers talking at the same time, unintelligible]
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: No, this is a -- yeah.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: Part of the student conduct process is an informal meeting where, essentially, we're gonna sit down and we're gonna figure out if there's a way to resolve this and we have some offers that the college feels are our next steps.
SKYLAR: Okay.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: And we have the options, okay -- so, the reason Cathy's here is because she has the background knowledge and can probably answer a lot more questions about these offers than I can.
SKYLAR: Mhmm.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: Okay, so that's why Cathy's here, but, essentially, I have the -- I can give this to you in writing and you can read through it and then we can discuss it or we can go ahead and explain it to you from the jump. How would you like to --
SKYLAR: [interrupts, speaks almost too quickly to understand] How about you give it to me in writing now and we can talk about it while I read through it?
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: Okay. So here's the full document. The first part is just rehashing what we've already sent to you and what's already been forwarded --
SKYLAR: [interrupts loudly] Okay, okay. I just -- point two is not acceptable. [silence] "You will not be allowed back on campus for the rest of 2017 semester." Unless you guys are going to refund all my tuition for this semester, then...
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: I ask you to turn the page and continue reading. [gently] And I'd be happy to walk you through those, Skylar, and explain those.
[silence, page turning, heavy breathing]
SKYLAR: Option one is not acceptable. No -- basically, if an option -- [stuttering] Either I'm going to finish here -- I'm not going somewhere else, so if any of these options just say, "Oh, yeah, go away and whatever," then no, those aren't acceptable.
[silence, page turning]
VICTORIA: [clears throat] I'm gonna speak now. This is ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. This entire situations boils down to seven semesters worth of my son not being allowed to defend the faith. He hangs up posters in black and white with nothing graphic and nothing that disagrees with the teachings of the Catholic Church, upon which this institution is built, and this is what he's facing because he got angry? He didn't hurt anybody, he didn't threaten to hurt anybody. At one point, with the poster thing, he even warned somebody there was still a pin in the poster. Does that sound like somebody who is trying to be physically harmful?
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: I have reports of a --
[SKYLAR and VICTORIA interrupt, both talking loudly]
VICTORIA: I have the video!
SKYLAR: I -- yeah, we have audio/video recording of the entire incident on that Monday and I annotated it. One of -- on the second page of the thing I handed you -- I believe it's the second page, yeah. Second page has a list of time stamps with -- pointing out certain parts of the incident. The video's available, it's on my computer, I can show it to you. It's also available on Youtube, I can email you guys the link to it. The time stamps are also on the link. It's actually unlisted right now, it's not able to be found unless you have the direct URL of it; however, it will be listed for search depending on how this whole thing plays out. It may become public. It is not --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL: [interrupts] Is that a threat?
SKYLER: [snickers]
VICTORIA: Okay, it is not a physical threat but yes, it will bring peril into the public --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] Threat? Yeah, yes.
VICTORIA: -- because this is not acceptable.
SKYLAR: [stammers]
VICTORIA: My son -- [to SKYLAR] excuse me -- my son did not enroll in this Catholic college to have his faith challenged. I understand that we are all, as Catholics, called to be martyrs to our faith, but this was not the place I thought he'd be called for that.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: This hearing is not -- this is not a hearing, first of all --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] That's what the results are.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: This meeting is not about Skylar's faith. This is about his conduct when I simply asked him to take a letter and remove -- cease from posting posters. You have --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] But if the content of the posters --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [continues, talking over VICTORIA]: -- already had that with Renee McMahon.
VICTORIA: [continues] -- right! And I disagree. Her findings, first off, her report was false. There were things in there that were blatantly untrue. And please stop smirking, that is extremely disrespectful.
SKYLAR: And, and it also shows that you're not impartial so maybe you should leave and find someone else to take your part in this.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: You're not. [sigh] this is not the place to be making decisions. We're here to of -- to talk --
SKYLAR: [interrupts simultaneously with VICTORIA] This looks like a decision --
VICTORIA: [interrupts, shouting simultaneously with SKYLAR] You're not offering him anything!
SKYLAR: It's either, "get the hell out of this place and do stuff somewhere else" or just "get out completely and we don't want to hear from you ever again", basically. Either way. It's either, "you can go somewhere else" or "you can go somewhere else."
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: You know, Skylar, we are willing to work with you to complete your degree. We're not --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] This is not working, this is just getting rid of the problem.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [interrupts] Yes, it is.
SKYLAR: You think I'm a problem, you want me to be gone. You want the problem just to disappear. Guess what? It's not going to disappear. It'd be interesting to see how -- I wonder how much of the prospective students of the college are actually Catholic and would be concerned if the college is doing stuff like this. I mean I -- I bet I could -- Honestly if this got in the news, even just Catholic news, it would probably -- you'd probably see a pretty big dent in your next few years worth of prospective students. People would probably choose to go elsewhere if they hear about this and that's why it has not been made public and the college I haven't named publicly apart from my website, which, like, really nobody except people at the college or people that people at the college told about it know about it. This is -- I -- I could have gone completely public with this and sent it to all kinds of -- basically, sent it to every news agency in the world. I have not done that yet [pauses] because I'm a nice person.
VICTORIA: This is a giant violation of not only freedom of speech but the ability to express his faith.
SKYLAR: [interrupts] Yeah, this is a -- yeah.
VICTORIA: [continues] Those posters were true. And unless you disagree with the catechetical teachings of the Catholic Church, which you are free to do --
SKYLAR: [interrupts, page turning] For your convenience, it is on page three of the pamphlet -- brochure --
VICTORIA: [continues] -- you can't tell him that.
SKYLAR: [continues] -- Here are three paragraphs. "In the catechism of the Catholic Church was a definitive publication of the Catholic Church saying Church teaching. These are three paragraphs concerning homosexuality." I've bolded some of those quotes, which coincidentally, are also on my posters.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: Okay, again, we are not here to discuss the Equal Opportunity --
SKYLAR: [interrupts, shouting simultaneously with VICTORIA] Yes, you are! This, this --
VICTORIA: [interrupts, shouting simultaneously with SKYLAR] But this is the follow up from that!
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: No, this is the follow up on the conduct -- this kind of behavior -- [unintelligible]
VICTORIA: [unintelligible]
SKYLAR: [shouting] What? What kind of behavior? I am angry because you guys -- you guys are implying that I am as bad as a person as like a KKK member who would go out and, like --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL: [unintelligible]
VICTORIA: That [unintelligible] was devastating. It was untrue and she painted him in the worst possible light.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: Okay, I wasn't part of that proceeding --
VICTORIA: [interrupts, talking simultaneously with SKYLAR] No but you had the results.
SKYLAR: [interrupts, talking simultaneously with VICTORIA] I don't care.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [continues] -- but what I know is this is about your behavior and the result of that behavior when we tried to have a conversation with you about taking the poster down.
VICTORIA: [interrupts] Are you familiar -- are you familiar with autism?
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [pauses] I am.
VICTORIA: Okay, do you recognize any of the symptoms and signs in Skylar?
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: That doesn't excuse this type of behavior --
SKYLAR: [interrupts, talking simultaneously with VICTORIA] So, so that means --
VICTORIA: [interrupts, talking simultaneously with SKYLAR] It does not excuse it but he does need some special --
SKYLAR: [talking over everyone] Yeah, if you [stammers] want to be -- want to go all about how -- [to others] Just let me finish, mom, you can talk [unintelligible]. If you want to go all, like, "Oh, this is discriminating against gay people," well, you're discriminating against me on religious grounds and on disability grounds. If you wanna get really technical, we can throw that at you too. That's federal law. You guys are violating a federal law with this entire proceeding -- probably not just Title XI, there's probably other stuff you're violating too. There's all kinds of things where this is wrong and the only reason no one in administration cares is because you guys are not Catholic and you don't -- you have a different agenda.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: Okay.
SKYLAR: I can send you the recording if you want, you don't have to be taking notes if you don't -- you know, you really...
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: Okay, so here's where we're at. In the beginning of this letter, you have exactly what we're trying to address here, which is the behavior from us confronting you about the posters and moving on from that, okay? [page turning] The options we've given you are three options that we're asking you to consider and to let us know by Monday at five p.m. if you would be willing to agree to one of them and move forward --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] And if I'm not, you're just gonna choose the third one.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: [continues] -- And if you do not agree, the conduct process moves forward to a student conduct board, okay? And that policy is in the conduct policy and it's at the end of the packet that we've given you. That would take seven to ten days to pull together because we would have to prepare the board. They would have an opportunity to review everything -- emails you've sent to us, emails we've sent to you, all the documentation, everything. They would have the opportunity to ask for any further information in writing, from yourself or anyone else involved, and then we would have a face to face meeting. That board would consist of myself, two staff members, and two students. You would have the opportunity to speak, they would have the opportunity to ask questions of you. They would then, as a board, decide and that decision is final. There's no appealing that decision on this campus.
SKYLAR: [interrupts] So, you know what's kind of funny? So like, I know this isn't a super legal thing. I mean, most of the stuff you're doing is illegal, actually. But basically -- I know this isn't like, a court thing -- but you know, generally, when there's a [stammers] if someone's in court for a crime and there's a plea deal made, generally, the plea deal doesn't have the same -- it's usually a lesser consequence than the actual -- You know, if someone's going for the death penalty, the plea deal would not be, "Here, have the death penalty." That's what you guys are doing. You guys are saying, "Here, you can choose expulsion."
SCHOOL OFFICIALS: No, Skylar, let me --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] Yeah, or, "we'll go and expel you anyways."
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: You know what? What we have done with this is tried to create a pathway for you to complete your degree --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] This isn't a pathway, this is a rejection.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: It is a pathway. And you can --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] It's the -- it's a terrible pathway. It's not a path any normal person would want to take.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [continues] It's not -- I can understand, I can understand but having you back on campus this semester is not acceptable.
SKYLAR & VICTORIA: [simultaneously] Why?
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: Because of your behavior.
SKYLAR: [interrupts, talking simultaneously with VICTORIA] What behavior? Because people called me a bigot?
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: Because of the crime that you're committing right here in this room right now.
SKYLAR: [interrupts] You're creating this behavior!
VICTORIA: [interrupts] But for seven semesters, he has been discriminated against consistently. Not only for sharing his religious faith but because of his disability and it's sickening. It is absolutely sickening. This campus has done very little to support him.
SKYLAR: Maybe I've been too nice. Maybe I should have just been filing complaints like, every other day.
VICTORIA: Every time someone did something, you should have come crying in to the Student Life office, apparently.
SKYLAR: That's apparently what gay people do, when -- or even just other -- I don't know, when people --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] When people get their feelings hurt and they --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] Yeah, when -- apparently every time my feelings were hurt, I should have come in here. I mean, is that, like... does that seem reasonable?
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: Skylar, would you like us to go through the options with you so you have the opportunity to answer questions -- ask questions?
SKYLAR: No, I'm perfectly capable of reading. You guys aren't really though, because you can't even read your own policies on this issue.
VICTORIA: Okay. So, I would like to point out -- Let's make an analogy, okay? I knocked over a glass of milk. It fell onto the table, onto the carpet, and ruined the carpet. Okay? I'm being punished for getting the carpet dirty but not for knocking over the milk. And that's what you're saying here. This isn't about the posters anymore, it's about what happened after. What happened after --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] -- was all on you.
VICTORIA: [continues] -- was a natural consequence of the posters and that is the real issue here. Who, I mean -- people hang up illegal posters all the time on campus.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: Your son approaching people aggressively and --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] Oh really?
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: [continues] -- actually I have a report of grabbing a student's hand to take posters from his hand. Is that a natural consequence?
SKYLAR & VICTORIA: [simultaneously] No.
SKYLAR: [continues] No, okay, if anything, there [stammers]. There was a thing where I was -- they were taking down the posters as I put them up and I got the posters back from them. She -- There were some students that were being openly belligerent and hostile to me, like, to the point where they were threatening to call the police. They were standing there waiting for, like -- they were standing there waiting, like -- they -- I actually looked back and saw one of them peek around the corner to make sure I was gone so that they could tear the posters up and throw them away. I requested that they hand me the poster back instead of throwing it in the trash. They smirked, crumpled -- ripped it up, crumbled it up and threw it in the trash can, like, reaching around me to do so.
VICTORIA: Why aren't those students being prosecuted for religious prosecution?
SKYLAR: Yeah, or -- I mean, or just being harassing or discriminating, or --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] Where are they? Why is everyone in Renee's report anonymous? This isn't right.
SKYLAR: [talking over everyone] This is a witch hunt. This is literally a witch hunt.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: [continues] Because they've asked to be anonymous. This is not about Renee's report, this is not --
SKYLAR: [continues talking over everyone] Renee's report is a consequence of people complaining!
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [continues] You need to -- you need to, then appeal that report.
VICTORIA: [interrupts] So you didn't read Renee's report?
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: I have read the report, I wasn't part of --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] Well, then that affected your position!
SKYLAR: [talking over everyone] It's exactly, yeah! Yeah, okay, you know what? You know what? This entire thing, it's just --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL: [interrupts] Wait, wait, whoa whoa...
SKYLAR: [continues] -- it's all just different ways people are objecting to my posters. It's all related. It's all because people are bigoted against Catholics here. That is the source of all of this. If no one had an issue with the Catholic teachings on the posters, none of the rest of this would have happened --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] He could have put up more TerranQuest posters.
SKYLAR: [continues] -- It all goes back to that. Yeah, I have lots of posters, no one cares -- I think I mentioned this to you guys. One time I hung up -- I made a banner that was like, four feet by two and a half feet. I hung it on the wall in Simperman. It stayed up for the whole semester. [pause] Why is no one caring about that? It's not about the posters, it's about the message on the posters.
VICTORIA: [interrupts] It's about the content.
SKYLAR: [continues] That is the core issue of this. That is what needs to be addressed because that is religious discrimination, that is harassment against me, that is -- it's really, it's -- it ranges again from just defacement of property all the way to you guys don't like my religion.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: You know, Skylar, we wouldn't -- I wouldn't be sitting here --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] You are hateful.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [continues] -- having this conversation with you if you had simply--
SKYLAR: [interrupts] -- if you weren't required to by the rules.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [continues] -- if, no --
SKYLAR [interupts, snickers] Yeah.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [continues] -- if, when I asked you not to do -- hang up posters without permission, you had simply said, "okay." We'd taken them down and then you tried to get permission and have this debate --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] Wait, what are you talking about? When --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [interrupts] I'm the one --
SKYLAR: [continues] -- are you -- so, when you handed me the letter?
SCHOOL OFFICIALS: Yes.
SKYLAR: I stopped! I didn't hang any more posters after that!
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: No, it was your behavior when we went to take the posters down!
SKYLAR: Because -- because you're --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: We wouldn't have -- if we had taken them down and walked away, I wouldn't be sitting here in this room with you and [unintelligible] --
SKYLAR: [shouting] If you had taken them down and just given them back to me, we wouldn't be either, then. I mean, you guys were taking my property and disposing of it against my will. That is against the law and it is against Carroll regulation. It's an offense.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: Okay, obviously we're not going to get anywhere here today...
SKYLAR: [laughs]
VICTORIA: Who can we talk to that is reasonable on this campus?
SKYLAR: Are there any actual Catholics in administration?
VICTORIA: I mean, this is a stupid situation. It is absolutely stupid. And I'm sorry, if the two of you can't see how trivial the real issue is here with posters, that's what we're arguing about, posters --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [interrupts] No, we are not.
VICTORIA: [continues] -- and he got mad that his posters were taken down --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] Yes, we are.
VICTORIA: [continues] -- That's what this is about. Have you ever had -- oh my gosh, has anyone ever like, actually hit somebody on this campus? I mean, that person must be in prison if this is what we're talking about.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: Other students have been removed from campus for the same types of behaviors.
VICTORIA: Because of hanging up posters?
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: No, no, because --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: Because of approaching people aggressively and --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] Because of approaching them, not touching them, not hurting them, not --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: [interrupts] Yelling at them, decrying --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] Okay, yelling is a crime?
VICTORIA: [interrupts] Yelling at someone is a crime now?
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: You were more than yelling, Skylar, and I --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] Oh really? Here, how about we watch the video?
[all speakers talking simultaneously, speech unintelligible]
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: Your video is from your point of view.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: That video cannot be [unintelligible].
VICTORIA: It's the video!
SKYLAR: [talking over everyone] We have until three thirty, you, no -- We have -- we have a meeting until three thirty, we're staying until three thirty. If you wanna leave, then --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: We'll sit right here until three thirty, that's fine. [unintelligible]
SKYLAR: [talking over everyone] You know -- you don't want to look at the evidence!
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: Skylar, hang on.
SKYLAR: You are refusing to view the evidence.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: Skylar, you were holding the camera. I was standing here, you were here.
VICTORIA: [interrupts] But the audio!
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [continues] You can't see from here!
SKYLAR: You can see -- okay, you can see -- Most of the video is video. All of it is audio.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: Well, you know, other people witnessed and saw what happened and you know that.
SKYLAR: Okay, you know -- you do know that eyewitness testimony is influenced by the act of asking for the testimony?
[all speakers talking at once, unintelligible]
VICTORIA: What would be in the video or missing that you think really happened? I don't understand what you're saying here.
SKYLAR: Why are you scared?
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: Reaching and grabbing and over --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] But if he videoed it and it's from his point of view...
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [interrupts] He didn't, he didn't video it.
SKYLAR: [angrily] Yes, I did.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: [interrupts] -- it was pointing at the floor.
SKYLAR: No, I was pointing at the floor because you didn't want to be videoed.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [pauses] Skylar, and I asked you not to video me as well and --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] And guess what? That doesn't matter. We just --
SKYLAR: [continues] -- we just went over that at the start of this meeting.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: [interrupts] You don't need that.
SKYLAR: [continues, stammers] You can look right there, like, it's the first place --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [interrupts] It's fine that you have a video. It's not -- you don't have my permission, you never did, to do that.
SKYLAR: [interrupts] Yes, then you should have left!
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [continues] And it's not an accurate video [unintelligible].
SKYLAR: [talking over SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2] Did you see what the law is? What the --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [interrupts] I know what the law is.
SKYLAR: Well, obviously you don't if you're saying that sort of thing because --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [interrupts] I didn't say it was against the law, I said I didn't give you my permission.
VICTORIA: Right, but that doesn't --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] You did by being there and not leaving. You could have left. There was no force keeping you there apart from just wanting to destroy an expression of the Catholic faith. I told you that when I was recording. Are you gonna respond?
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: Skylar, we've given you our response in writing. You have until Monday afternoon -- Don't rip it up, you need to take it home.
SKYLAR: No, I'm gonna rip it up. [to VICTORIA] Well, yeah, we can still read it when it's ripped up.
VICTORIA: No. [unintelligible]
SKYLAR: [continues] I wanna look at it, I want to look at it.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: And if you disagree with the appeals, if you disagree with the appeals, [unintelligible].
SKYLAR: [interrupts] Yeah, none of those options are good. Just so you know, none of those options are valid.
VICTORIA: How would we know that the [unintelligible] court is unbiased?
SKYLAR: Yeah, how would we know? Because for all we know -- would we be able to question the people and see what they're-- it needs to be at least a balanced between people who are actually Catholic.
VICTORIA: [unintelligible]
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: This is not a court of law.
SKYLAR: Yeah, and isn't that funny? If this was a court of law, you guys would be in jail.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: The policy is laid out in the student handbook. We've provided you a printed copy as well. If you have questions about the options --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] No, we don't. They're --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [continues] -- and if you don't understand, please feel free to --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] We understand, they're BS. They're complete BS. They're not -- yeah.
VICTORIA: Yeah, they'e not acceptable. And I know this is probably not at the top of your mind, but two years ago, Skylar got in trouble as well and Carroll College did nothing to back him up. And we did appeal, and it went to you, and you rejected the appeal. And he got in trouble. Emily, you weren't here but he was taking a digital photography class. The assignment was to take pictures of people in public. He did. He went down to a playground and was taking pictures of kids and it blew up from there into --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] Yeah, I --.
VICTORIA: [continues] -- this giant Facebook attack on him. They called the police, they said it was a thirty year old man taking pictures and the police came. They're like, "there's nothing going on here, there's no crime here," and Skylar still suffered at the hands of Carroll College. His professor didn't back him up, this school didn't back him up. You sold him out to Head Start and it was not okay. And so, two years later, we're back here because he posted some posters with words on them and everybody's upset.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: Again --
VICTORIA: [continues] This college is just garbage. I mean, I've had friends tell me that since before he started here, that "only go to Carroll if you want to lose your faith", "only go to Carroll if you're gonna subscribe to liberal media," "only go to Carroll if you just want to get along with everybody and just pretend that everything's cool and pay a lot of money for nothing." And I always said, "No, it's not like that."
SKYLAR: [sarcastically] Guess what?
VICTORIA: They were right. This is disgusting. This is absolutely horrifying.
SKYLAR: And you're sitting there smirking.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: I don't mean to be, that's not my intention, I was trying to understand --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] Well, it's -- I know, it's probably a subconscious bias against me.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: No, I'm just trying to understand what we can do in this moment to --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] You -- yeah.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: If you could rewrite this, what would you like that to look like?
SKYLAR: [talking simultaneously with VICTORIA] An apology.
VICTORIA: [talking simultaneously with SKYLAR] I would like him -- I would like a full apology because this situation is absurd. We went to a -- my family and I went to the Chris Stefanic talk last night where he talked about in his talk how Mother Teresa did not uphold the gay lifestyle but should we all have persecuted Mother Teresa for promoting Catholic teachings?
SKYLAR: [interrupts] She's now a saint.
VICTORIA: [continues] No. This is insane. Just because he wasn't able to present the whole entirety of Catholic teaching on a poster, saying, "Love everybody but here's some rules"? He was being discriminated against.
SKYLAR: That is what I said though, I did say that.
VICTORIA: You said respect, that everyone deserves respect, but you can't do that. Renee's report was... awful. There were so many highlights in that when I got done reading that it was just, it was mostly highlighted when we highlighted her mistakes. And this was not me arguing with what witnesses had said, this is me arguing with her take, her spin, on some of this Catholic teaching.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: You have -- Skylar, you have a right to appeal that.
SKYLAR: [talking simultaneously with VICTORIA] What good would that do? What good would that do?
VICTORIA: [talking simultaneously with SKYLAR] And how would that affect this?
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: They're two separate processes.
VICTORIA: They're two separate processes.
SKYLAR: Yeah, yeah --
VICTORIA: That process resulted in Skylar having a meeting and watching a video. That was her punishment.
SKYLAR: That was her recommendation.
VICTORIA: It was dumb, it was dumb. It had no academic -- Yeah.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: [interrupts] It was her recommendation, it was not a proposed -- it was not the sanction given.
VICTORIA: It sounded like it.
SKYLAR: Yeah, that was apparently a recommendation that was written to scare us.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [interrupts] This is not the sanction for that -- that process.
VICTORIA: I understand that!
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [continues] It's because of what happened, actually, the behavior --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] No, you can't just address that because they'd be entire --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL: [unintelligible]
VICTORIA: You need to address [unintelligible].
SKYLAR: [continues] It's one issue! It's one whole issue! This -- see, this is one of the issues we had with Renee's report. She just cherrypicked. She was like, "Oh, lemme take this sentence from this bishop and use that -- put that out of context so I can justify that Skylar's a terrible person."
VICTORIA: [interrupts] Yeah.
SKYLAR: [continues] That's what you guys are doing. You're taking one part of the issue --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [interrupts] Skylar, I don't happen to think you're a terrible person --
SKYLAR: [continues] --out of context to get me expelled. Well, you obviously do. Your reports -- All your words say otherwise.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [continues] -- I don't even think the way you treated me -- No, I don't think I --
SKYLAR: [continues] Then why do you have a vendetta against me? Why does the college have a vendetta against me?
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: I have no vendetta against you.
SKYLAR: Then what do you call trying to get me expelled because I was expressing my religious belief and got upset when people didn't like it?!
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [interrupts] This isn't [unintelligible], Skylar.
SKYLAR: [talking] People called -- When people started calling me a -- it's hard to talk to people when I am upset because people are calling me a hateful bigot. Would you like to read some of the emails I've gotten from people anonymously on the internet from this? Would you like to read them? People hate me as they wish I were dead!
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: That's not -- I'm sorry about that, I have --
SKYLAR: [continues] No, that's -- those are people who share your view.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: No, you don't know my view.
SKYLAR: [talking loudly] Those are people that you -- people --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: You have no idea what my view is.
SKYLAR: [continues] This is a pretty good representation, isn't it?
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: No, this has -- it's a view about what I find as acceptable behavior.
SKYLAR: Okay, so, you think that I deserve everything that is happening to me, you think that I'm a bad person and deserve the punishment. If you didn't think I was a bad person, why would I deserve punishing? If I wasn't bad. Then why would I be punished? You realize you're... making no sense. If -- you should -- you guys should go out -- we should have another meeting where you actually bring in --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: I doubt we'll have another meeting with you.
SKYLAR: Yeah, that shows how you're unwilling to resolve this. You'd rather just go away and expel me. We should have a meeting -- not saying you're going to, I know you're not going to do that because it would actually make sense, it would be the reasonable thing to do. But I mean, you bring in a Catholic priest. You bring in some professor that actually has a firm grasp on logic. I mean, like a math professor or something that can get how logic works and how A relates to B and how B relates to C because you guys cannot do that. You guys are so polluted by the culture that you don't understand what you're even doing. You don't understand that doesn't make sense.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [interrupts] [unintelligible] Actually, should you avail yourself to one of these options, I will work with you to select the right courses and complete your degree.
SKYLAR: [stammers] Okay, well --
VICTORIA: But then he can't even go to graduation!
SKYLAR: [interrupts] And I can't even go to class here!
VICTORIA: [continues] I mean, what do you expect he would do? Get on the stage and just shout things?
SKYLAR: You just -- you want me gone.
VICTORIA: I mean, it's absurd. This is a ridiculous hyperbole of punishment.
SKYLAR: The college wants me gone because it doesn't like that I disagree with them because the college likes to be hypocritical. The college mission statement says it's Catholic but when someone actually points out Catholic teaching, that's labeled as "hate speech."
VICTORIA: Seven semesters, he has been bullied and intimidated by other people. And he doesn't come --
SKYLAR: Yeah. If you want, I can give you the name of someone you can talk to. He knows all about the kind of things they say and we -- we have debates all the time and stuff like that after theology class. We have debates --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] So, I think his reaction of posting posters and becoming upset when they were removed is fair. I don't understand why you think someone speaking loudly is so harmful. These things that you wrote are just not true.
SKYLAR: [interrupts] I didn't even bother reading them.
VICTORIA: [continues] He never endangered the health or safety of anybody. Just because maybe somebody felt, "Oh, he might," no.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: Did you -- That is not true and if you read the reports that we wrote --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] Would you like to watch the video?
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: The video is not an accurate portrayal of [unintelligible].
SKYLAR: [interrupts, laughs] Oh, so you're -- just -- hearsay is? You realize that eyewitness testimony is one of the most unreliable forms of evidence that is in a court of law? You know how many people been put in jail because eyewitnesses said, "Oh, yeah, that was totally that guy. He totally did these things." And it was not -- and later DNA evidence told that he was somewhere else altogether for the entire incident? Eyewitness testimony is crap! There's a reason why there's a movement where people videotape the police and things like that because you can't dispute raw footage!
VICTORIA: Because memories can easily be edited --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] Yeah.
VICTORIA: [continues] -- and videos cannot be edited so easily.
SKYLAR: [continues] Every time you recall a memory, it is rewritten in your brain. That means when someone goes around and asks, like, "Hey, what happened whenever this thing we're doing investigation against this person" or whatever --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] From two weeks ago!
SKYLAR: [continues] -- yeah, that person's memories as they recall them they -- this is psychology, you can ask a professor -- it'll be rewritten and will actually have a bias. Instantly and no one even realizes it, it's a subconscious thing. Like, you can't -- so, if you guys are scared of what the video has because you think eyewitness means enough, that means you guys really, like, deep down, know that you guys are wrong. Because you don't want the actual truth to come out. If you did, you'd have no fear of the video. The thing is like, people that fear, having [unintelligible], that's because they have something to hide. You ever heard the phrase, "Oh, I have nothing to hide so it's fine with [unintelligible]"? Yeah, it works the opposite way too. If you have something to hide, you don't want people looking at what you're doing. You don't want people looking closely, all right?
So, if you guys don't want to like, watch this video, that means you're like, that means you're basically admitting that you are mistaken and that you don't want to be corrected because if you were actually non biased and you actually wanted to have a good outcome for all parties here, you would love to have the video. You would want that to be replayed over and over so everybody could see it and everybody could draw conclusions from that because it's an -- completely guaranteed, totally impartial record of what happened. It's not hearsay, it's not impressions, it is a chance for everybody to go through and look through what happened and see what actually happened without being clouded by like, adrenaline or anything in the heat of the moment. You can go back with a cool, calm, collected, logical mind and you can see what happened. So if you guys don't want that, you guys don't want a reasonable conclusion to this whole thing, you just want me to -- you just treat me as a problem that should be gone. Yeah, that means you've already made your decision. And so, it's --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] Skylar, they made their decision two weeks ago.
SKYLAR: Yeah, I know. I'm really -- I'm mentally prepared to be expelled.
VICTORIA: We know that.
SKYLAR: I was mentally ready to be expelled ever since the first letter from you guys saying I can't put posters up.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [interrupts] I'm offering you a way not to be expelled and not to have that on your transcript.
SKYLAR: [laughs] It looks an awful lot like expulsion. It's expulsion, you just don't use the word. There's no real difference. You're just saying, "Oh, you can transfer somewhere else."
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: I don't make -- I don't make the decision but I'm -- we were met and we're willing to work this out so that you can have a degree. That's your choice. We tried to work with your professors to see if they would let you back in their classes. As you can see, one is willing to work with you. The others are not.
SKYLAR: Why not? What did they say about me?
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: Because -- because of the ripple effect of what's happened. People saw what happened. People were watching. People were walking up and down the hall, Skylar. And your -- and their past experience with you in classes. So, please --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] Okay, so... all right so... The only -- here's the thing, all right?
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [continues] -- consider this and --
SKYLAR: [talking loudly] So, I have three computer classes this semester, right? So, senior project is [unintelligible] and security and then there's the advanced web and [unintelligible] development. You know, all three of those, really? I mean, they're just computer projects, they're just semester-long projects. One of them is setting up how to use servers and the other two are just doing a semester-long project. Like, why would they -- I mean, there's no reason for them to say they don't want me there. As far as I know, unless they're just like, saying back things behind my back and not actually showing it and hiding it really well to my face, they don't really care either way. I mean, they don't strike me as the kind of people who would get super offended and hate people for no reason which is what you guys are doing but they don't seem like the people that would. They seem like reasonable people that actually have a firm grasp on reality.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: Who's the teacher for that one?
SKYLAR: Some -- it's a guy that funny enough, it's the first class I've ever had with him.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [unintelligible] Sean Scott, Professor Scott, and he's willing to work remotely with --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] Also, when you say "limited access to Moodle", what does that even mean?
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: That means -- That means you'll have access to the course on Moodle but not to the rest of the network.
SKYLAR: Well, I only ever have access -- students only ever have access to the courses they're enrolled in, so...
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [interrupts] I know but not -- what I mean by that is just that course. None of the other courses or the rest of the system.
SKYLAR: Well, that is not -- none of this is acceptable. These are not options! These are not valid options.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: This is not a decision. This is an offer. If you don't want this, then you move to --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] This is like a plea deal. Yeah, this is like -- yeah, this is like you guys are offering me a plea deal. The problem is that plea deals are usually less severe than the actual possible outcome of the entire case. This is the same -- this is the equivalent of the death penalty, like an academic death penalty, really. You guys are saying, "Either you leave us alone, like, have as little to do with us as you possibly can," or "you just leave all together". That's the kind of thing you do after the entire decision. That's not a deal, that's just saying, "Get out now so we don't have to do the full process because we're gonna make the same decision either way so it won't really matter, it's just a waste of our time. So we hope you leave so we don't have to deal with the whole thing and make a shame -- and make ourselves look bad." That's what you guys are saying. You're saying, "Either take this or take the same thing after a bunch more inconvenience."
VICTORIA: And Tom Evans said he had faith in the official system.
SKYLAR: [laughs]
VICTORIA: I can't believe he said that.
SKYLAR: Yeah, shock! Yeah.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: So, Skylar, if you do not want to take one of these options --
SKYLAR: [interrupts, talking simultaneously with VICTORIA] I can't take one of those options! They're not options.
VICTORIA: [interrupts, talking simultaneously with SKYLAR] No, they're -- they're [unintelligible] ridiculous.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: I need from you, in writing, by Monday at five p.m., that you do not want to take one of these options and you'd like to move forward to the conduct board. I will go ahead and get that process started. Again, it will take seven to ten business days to get a meeting time together and then we will go through that process, as I explained previously. And then, you can meet with the student conduct board and again, I just remind you that their decision is final. There's no appeal after that here at Carroll's campus.
SKYLAR: Yeah, that'll be fun. You know, it's funny because you guys do realize that with your own rules, this entire process is unjustified and wrong. Your own rules prohibit what is going on right now. The discrimination policy applies to religious discrimination as well. I think that's the reason you decided to throw extra charges at me because I was being loud because you realized that if it was just religion --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] But even that's just handicapped discrimination.
SKYLAR: Yeah, that's still [unintelligible] for me. I mean, I have a medical diagnosis for that so I can get -- I can request my youth records --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: Skylar, have you ever requested an accommodation through the disabilities center?
SKYLAR: [interrupts, talking simultaneously with VICTORIA] No, it was never necessary until now!
VICTORIA: [interrupts, talking simultaneously with SKYLAR] No, because he didn't want to ask for special treatment.
SKYLAR: I didn't need special treatment until -- apparently, apparently I should have been getting it all along.
VICTORIA: He was a patient at Inner Mountain from age seven to eighteen.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: I had no knowledge of that.
SKYLAR: Well, you do now! So --
VICTORIA: But -- Skylar, pause. On the Carroll -- On the Carroll website about disabilities, it says all faculty and staff are trained to recognize and [unintelligible] people with disabilities.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: And there's a process for working with the academic resources --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] I understand that but it says all are trained. All administration, staff, and faculty. So, did you guys just miss that?
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: I've not worked on a one-to-one basis with Skylar.
VICTORIA: I don't mean that, I mean that when you look at someone in a wheelchair, you realize they have a disability, okay? There are a lot of easily recognizable disabilities that aren't physical so if you guys have had your Carroll disability awareness training, how did you miss that he's autistic? Like, how? I mean, in just talking to him. He talks loudly, he doesn't make eye contact, he has inappropriate space boundaries... How did you guys miss that?
SKYLA: You're not gonna miss the lawsuit.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: We can't assume. If a student doesn't present, we can think things and we can [pause], yes, several --
SKYLA: [interrupts] Didn't say anything.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: [continues] -- signs are exhibited but I can't assume.
VICTORIA: But you can ask.
SKYLAR: Right?
VICTORIA: You can treat someone --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: [interrupts] It's sensitive.
VICTORIA: [continues] -- as if, just in case. Without asking, without labeling --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: [interrupts] Until [unintelligible] they get offended.
VICTORIA: [continues] -- you can be aware of a certain sensitivity.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: [continues] Aren't we all about sensitivity?
SKYLAR: [interrupts] Oh, I -- Guess what? You already made me offended so it wouldn't have made a difference. I've been offended this whole time because I've been offended and betrayed by an institution that I thought shared my beliefs. Instead, I am basically -- there's a phrase called "white martyrdom." It's when you're made a martyr because everyone ostracizes you and makes your life terrible. They don't actually kill you like, you know, a traditional martyr, but it's basically the same thing anyways, without that. It's just -- it's a white martyrdom because there's no blood involved. That's what you guys are doing. You are martyring me for my belief. You're basically saying you're -- "We don't like your belief so you need to leave." You know that's what they did to Jesus too, right? They killed him for blasphemy because he didn't -- they didn't agree with what he was saying. You guys are figuratively crucifying me because I expressing my belief.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: Okay. We are responding to the behaviors.
VICTORIA: The behaviors were a direct result influenced by a mental handicap of religious persecution.
SKYLAR: Yeah. My behaviors -- I wouldn't have gotten like -- I wouldn't have gotten, like, asked -- protested you taking my posters down and stuff if they hadn't been taken down in the first place because people can't handle the truth.
VICTORIA: And replaced by some student with her own posters.
SKYLAR: Yeah, you know, realize --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] Why aren't they having a confrontary?
SKYLAR: [interrupts] Yeah, that, their posters --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [interrupts] [unintelligible]
SKYLAR: [interrupts] There's no -- that's because there's no proceedings, is there? You don't even know who did it because it was just a generic poster that someone printed off off the internet.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: I have no knowledge of that. I -- That wasn't the incident I was involved with.
SKYLAR: [interrupts] I think I -- I think I mentioned it here.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: I've only -- I've only had a couple face-to-face interactions with --
SKYLAR: [interrupts loudly] All right, so, okay, so -- here's what went down. So I think it was like, the Thursday before the whole thing on Monday. I put up three, three individual posters with a completely Catholic message saying that certain actions are wrong, that doesn't mean people should be rejected... You know, it was -- it's a valid message. It's backed up in the catechism of the Catholic Church very, very clearly, all right? And those were taken down by the next morning and replaced with over a dozen posters saying "love trumps hate" which really it means since -- I mean, I'm assuming that's a response to my posters because there's nothing else it could have been a response to unless someone just got drunk and decided to put up gay posters which I doubt is a thing that happens.
Those posters, those "love trumps hate," that means that they thought my words, which are the words of the Catholic Church, are hate speech. And if that isn't just liturgious discrimination and making me out to be on par with the KKK, I don't know what is. If I'm being [stammers]. In response to the posters I hung, means that people thought I was hateful, I was bigoted, and I was not a loving person and [stammers] do I need to wear a white pointed hood or something or not? Apparently I don't because people just assume that anyways. You know, a funny thing is there actually is a Catholic hat that's traditional in Spain that looks just like the KKK hats. It's kinda funny. It had nothing to do with it, it's just interesting.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: Okay, we -- we could sit here and go back and forth with the facts of this --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] So who else can we talk to on campus who's reasonable? Because, Cathy, when we appealed Skylar's photo thing two years ago, it was just a written repeal, I mean appeal. No one ever asked for more information, there was nothing. You just wrote a letter back saying, "No, I don't accept it." So I'm completely biased toward you, against you, I should say, because that was really unfair. Skylar had a hearing with Jim Hardwick and... wasn't it Renee too?
SKYLAR: Maybe, I don't know. I'm bad with names because I'm autistic.
VICTORIA: [continues] And Renee McMahon, and they were so afraid of the Rocky Mountain Head Start people coming down on Carroll that they were going to give them Skylar no matter what. And when we appealed it, you gave no consideration to that that we could see. I don't know what went on in your office and in your brain, but when we got your letter, there was no feeling there, there was no consideration there whatsoever. So I -- we need to talk to other people. And then Emily's been over here, I mean, like, smirking the whole time. So clearly, she's not taking this seriously.
SKYLAR: Yeah. And if she is, she's happy the way it's going which means she is biased because she wants a certain outcome and she thinks she's getting it. I mean, you know, okay, this doesn't sound very politically correct but you realize she's the exact like, stereotypical crazy feminist that you see on Youtube hitting people because they don't like something that someone says. And she acts like it too, honestly. I mean, really, I don't really know you personally but everything I've seen shows that you cannot be reasonable and it's based on what other people just like you do. I know it's kind of stereotypical but stereotypes are only wrong if they're inaccurate. [laughs]
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: Again, we've given you the process [unintelligible] here at Carroll. If you're not happy with that, obviously you have options outside of campus --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] You do realize at this point I have nothing to lose, right?
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: As I said a few minutes ago, I'm not making this decision. I was asked to come here to explain the academic options --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] Who made the decision?
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: There's not a decision!
SKYLAR: [interrupts] Who --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] Who wrote this?!
SKYLAR: Who approved that?!
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: Academic -- Academic Affairs makes decisions about students --
SKYLAR: Who?
VICTORIA: Who is Academic Affairs?
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: Well, I -- I worked with that piece because that's my job --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] So you did make the decision.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [continues] -- no, to help students complete their degrees, especially if they're not following, staying here at Carroll --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] This doesn't help. This is telling me to get the hell out.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: That's a decision based on the situation. I'm not saying that, I'm saying --
SKYLAR: That's what your words say. Your words and actions say that.
VICTORIA: I mean, I just -- just looking at these things that he's been accused of. I don't know where he admitted that his conduct was this --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [interrupts] He didn't, we're asking -- that's one of the conditions --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] Oh, that's part of it. Well, he's not going to admit to that because --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [interrupts] He never responded back. Okay, that's his right. Okay.
VICTORIA: Well, okay, there were -- This Monday, two weeks after the event, he got new charges? What was that? Where did that come from?
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: I received grievances [unintelligible] --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] In the last two weeks?
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: No, I wrote those immediately after --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] And we received it February 13th.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: I'm not in charge of [unintelligible]
SKYLAR: [interrupts, stammers, unintelligible]
VICTORIA: Why is this taking so long?
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: We had our meeting. You all met with Renee, you came back and talked to me, and in that process --
VICTORIA: That was February 2nd.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: [continues] -- you appealed the temporary suspension.
SKYLAR: [interrupts] And you rejected it the next morning.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: [continues] I sent you an email stating that I needed more time to review the situation.
SKYLAR: Let me see if I can find that email.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: The appeal then went to Annette Walstead. You spoke with her and that was that part which stalled the investigation --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] Okay, your email -- I first appealed that email right there was signing with you and your reply includes, "your temporary suspension is laid out in a letter delivered to you [unintelligible] remains in effect until this process is complete." That sounds like a rejection of my appeal to have it lifted early, doesn't it?
VICTORIA: Yeah... Your email was very unclear. It said, "Our meeting Thursday morning was an important part of the process of gathering and reviewing information about this case." So, when we read "this case," we interpreted that as the entire Student Life conduct case, whatever you call it, not just this temporary suspension.
SKYLAR: [interrupts] She's being vague on purpose.
VICTORIA: She is. "Additional time is needed before a decision is made which will take us into next week. As a reminder, your temporary suspension as laid out in the letter delivered to you on February 1st, 2017 remains in effect until this process is complete. Please ensure in compliance." That was really unclear, so when he read that and when I read that and when I read it out to you now, it still says your temporary suspension appeal has been rejected. And so when Skylar was contacted --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] By not saying otherwise.
VICTORIA: [continues] -- five days later by Renee, or by Annette, he was like, "What are you talking about? Emily already rejected my appeal."
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: The email was sent to state that we needed more time --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] But it said, "this case." It doesn't specify. We assumed that meant the code of conduct case, the big case, not the temporary suspension. And then for him to find out that by appealing his temporary suspension so he could actually access his classwork and get to school, he was actually delaying all of this? You can only do one thing at a time all day? I mean, what's --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] You don't have more -- you don't have more than one person or more than one thing that -- can you can only hold one thought in your head at once or do you only have one person who can work in this -- How would considering if I'm a threat to people stop the investigation to see, to answer the same question? [laughs]
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: Again, this is where we are in the process --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] Yeah, you -- you keep saying that. You keep avoiding our questions. You have no good answer. Tell us what we want to know!
VICTORIA: [unintelligible]
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: I've given you my answer!
SKYLAR: Your answer is vague and inconclusive and doesn't mean a single damn thing.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: Well, I apologize that you feel that way but --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] No, it's not that I feel -- it's not a feeling. It's the fact. Here's the thing. Liberals have a thing where they -- they think, "Oh, I feel this way. That means everyone else is wrong and what I'm saying is true." No, there's this thing called alternative fact and that's what that is, it's a lie. It's the same thing as a lie. You guys -- you guys are saying, "Oh, I feel blah blah blah" whatever. It's just -- you can't -- It hurts my head to try to put myself in your shoes and understand why you're doing the things you are because they just make no logical sense. I cannot wrap my head around it. I've talked -- asked other people, they can't wrap their heads around it either.
Normal, well-balanced people. Unlike me, apparently. [laughs] Like my mother here. There's other people in the community. Priests. I mean, there's -- called into a Catholic talk radio show, asked a priest. Like, the priest that runs the show about what to do in this kind of situation and he was speechless. He was literally speechless on the radio. He was stammering and couldn't come up with a good response because it was so insane. The college's reaction was so insane, there was no reasonable, logical way to approach it. Because it just doesn't have a logical point -- there's no way to logically get from hanging up Catholic posters at a Catholic college to the college wants to have you expelled. I mean, there's no way to jump -- to go from A to B, given the situation, without just closing your eyes and running off the trail into the woods. I mean, [laughs] that's the only way that you guys could have possibly -- this whole thing could have possibly come to this is you just blindly doing things because you feel a certain way or because people feel a certain way or people think they're offended. There's no logical, firm, actual, justice-oriented way to get from A to B in this case.
So we're not going to get anywhere and that's not our fault, that's your fault. That's the college's fault because none of this: one, none of this would have happened if the college hadn't been, you know, stupid about it and the college continues to be, as far as I can tell, deliberately obstinate and deliberately stretching us out and deliberately being difficult and avoiding our questions. I mean, half the emails I have from you -- from college people are like, "Oh, yes, everything's very nice, everything is going according to plan, good bye." That's what they all say. Some of them have paragraphs that boil down to "I can't comment because I don't want to because I don't want to be quoted as saying something that is actually true." Because if you guys actually said anything of substance to us, you -- it would be immediately clear to anyone who looks at that.
VICTORIA: [interrupts] People feeling vaguely intimidated is not enough to expel somebody.
SKYLAR: You can't just feel that my stuff's offensive and just decide to use it to justify expelling me from school and persecuting me, and saying bad things about me, asking people to comment on how terrible of a person I am. I know that's -- that had to have happened because people wouldn't just approach the administration and talk about this out of the blue.
VICTORIA: Right. So you invited people to slander him during Renee's investigation.
SKYLAR: I'd say that's illegal.
VICTORIA: It is.
SKYLAR: Yeah.
VICTORIA: But --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] Isn't the first time I've been slandered by the college.
VICTORIA: And some of the quotes -- I know, I know. The whole Head Start thing was just appalling, that this school could not back you up doing your homework. But the -- Renee's report [unintelligible] Skylar has hung up posters before but nothing this inflammatory.
SKYLAR: [interrupts] That seems a bit loaded.
VICTORIA: [continues] Okay, that's true, but he's never hung up anything inflammatory before. And so, when you read that student's statement, it sounds like, "Oh my gosh, Skylar has been out here for years hanging up aggressive messages on posters" and he had never hung up a single one until this incident. That is just one example from that -- that Title XI report was garbage. She just picked and chose what she wanted to put in it.
SKYLAR: [interrupts] She literally quoted -- she quoted --
VICTORIA: [continues] When she quoted when I called into the radio, she put that in the report. And when she quoted that, she quoted the first bit that the priest said and she did not go on to his rather lengthy monologue about the quality of Catholic education and just because you're at a Catholic college doesn't mean you're getting a Catholic education and maybe for my daughter, I would be better choosing a secular school where she could express her Catholic faith.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: You have a right to appeal that through the process, I think that was said --
SKYLAR: [shouting] The process is broken! The process is broken and biased! It's very obviously a bad process.
VICTORIA: [shouting] [unintelligible] The process doesn't work! We've been through the process two years ago, it doesn't work.
SKYLAR: Yeah, because -- because you guys -- you guys have no reason to back me up. If you guys disagree with me, you have no reason to advocate for me. You have no reason to do anything in my favor because the only interest you have is protecting your job and protecting the image of the college. And so, you don't care about me, you don't care about the actual facts of the case --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [interrupts] No, that's not true.
SKYLAR: Yeah, it is. It's glaringly obvious that it's true.
VICTORIA: It is. It was true last time.
SKYLAR: And it's true now.
VICTORIA: It was true two years ago.
SKYLAR: If it wasn't true, then why would I be accused of --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] "Physical abuse, verbal abuse, threats, intimidation." I mean, come on!
SKYLAR: Physical, yeah! Or "disrupting a teaching [unintelligible] training. I didn't disrupt anybody! People could -- posters! You can choose to look at a poster and get angry about it or you can choose to, "Oh, someone has a point of view I don't agree with" and go on with your day. But you can choose to look away --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] That's what he does with all these posters for three and a half years that don't support his ideas --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] Yeah, that's what I've been doing -- that's what I've been doing my entire life! I've been -- I'll be like, "I don't want to -- I don't have the energy to take on this kind of abuse of my religion at this time. There's too much of it." --
VICTORIA: Do you know one of the reasons he stopped eating in the Stack?
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: Nope.
SKYLAR: Because people would argue with me about these things and people just didn't -- [stammers] I thought I had some friends but after they learned about what I believe in, they started actively sitting elsewhere and actually, sometimes I'd try to sit down with them and they'd all move to a different table. They'd all get up and move to a different table.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: I'm sorry that happened, Skylar.
SKYLAR: No, you're not.
VICTORIA: He's got zero friends at this campus after seven semesters and --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: Because of his religion.
SKYLAR: No.
VICTORIA: [continues] -- I know it's difficult because he is autistic. It's hard for him to make friends. But nobody here cares. He has been bullied and intimidated almost since he started here --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] Yeah and you know what --
VICTORIA: [continues] and nobody cares --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] And one of the --
VICTORIA: [continues] -- and just because he didn't come crying into the Student Life office or Community Life or whatever you call it because his feelings were hurt, nobody cares. This college -- you only care about the people that do make a fuss and yell and scream and complain. That's all you guys care about. And we need -- if -- when we appeal this, we need more people and we need reasonable people. Because we appealed last time and it was just a letter to you and you're like, "Nope, nope, sorry, there's no new information, I'm not changing the..." You never even called, you didn't have a meeting, nothing.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: You know, I'm not here to debate that. What I recall from that is I was given very narrow parameters which are you just -- you don't do an investigation, you look to see if there's A, B, and C, and then you make a decision.
VICTORIA: [interrupts] But that's not right! That's the college failing him!
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: Well, that's the way -- then, that's -- but that's the policy.
VICTORIA: [interrupts] Okay, so how do we fix the policy?
SKYLAR: [laughs]
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [continues] I hadn't [unintelligible] -- I had never met Skylar and it was after that that I met Skylar. Came to watch you and support you when you were doing your entrepreneur program, I came specifically to watch some of the things you were doing when you developed your app.
SKYLAR: Yeah, so?
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [continues] So those have been my -- those have been my interactions with Skylar was that and right now, and when I went and asked him --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] Okay, well, then take yourself out of -- yeah, but you can't --
SKYLAR: [talks over everyone] Wait, so if I was making [stammers] if my app I was making instead of being the thing it was, I was making an app that was, say, a little thing where you could look up quickly and see Catholic Church teachings on a [unintelligible] on like, gay marriage or things like that so you can defend the Catholic point of view. It would have the same message, it would have the same stuff as these posters. Would you be with me in supporting me on that if it was the same thing instead of making a financial app, it would be making a pro-Catholic apologetic app? --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: Skylar.
VICTORIA: Skylar, that has nothing to do with this.
SKYLAR: It does, if she's bringing it up --
VICTORIA: No, it doesn't, no, but what I'm going to say is if you want to remove yourself from the last appeal because, whatever, you want to blame the system --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [interrupts] That -- that's over. That's --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] I understand that but we remember that very clearly.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: Well, that's fine.
VICTORIA: And if you're blaming the system --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [interrupts] I'm not blaming the system, no.
VICTORIA: Yes, you are! You said you were given narrow parameters.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: I was and I did what I was asked to do and --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] Right, which was broken!
SKYLAR: [interrupts] And you failed.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: Well, okay, you have a right to --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] No, Skylar, the system failed.
SKYLAR: The system failed, yeah.
VICTORIA: If you want to take your personal self out of it because you followed the rules, they were bad.
SKYLAR: You know that's how the Nazis happened, right? People just said, "Oh, I'm just doing my job" --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] It's not a fair system --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] -- and then their job turned out to be building prison camps for Jews!
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: And I believe Skylar was allowed to continue at Carroll and was not removed from classes or anything --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] Yeah, yeah, it was very -- okay, that was my option--
VICTORIA: [interrupts] That was humiliating. He was put on probation --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] For three semesters, I was told to go to counseling --
VICTORIA: [continues] -- for three semesters, he had to go to counseling twice a semester. The process of the meeting was humiliating!
SKYLAR: [interrupts] I had to write a ten page paper like, showing how bad of a -- basically showing how I would be -- better, a better person and stuff and the topic I was given wasn't even a real topic! [stammers] The words didn't make -- the topic -- they had to change the topic because the topic did not exist. They just -- The stuff was made up to make me write about and it was something that could not -- there's no -- there's no actual anything ever for it.
VICTORIA: Right, Carroll policy failed. It failed that time and we have no reasonable expectation that it's gonna work this time.
SKYLAR: Everything is going the opposite direction from that. It's all -- If you want to ask someone who analyzes like situations or whatever and said, "What do you think your forecast on this is? Would you bet for the college or...?" They'd say, "Oh, the college is totally gonna win because they're making the decision."
VICTORIA: Even my friend, a lawyer, he's like, "You know, you're gonna have a case but you need someone out of state to do it. No one in Helena, no one in Montana wants to take on Carroll." I mean, you guys win. You have all the chips, okay? And this is how you're treating a twenty-year-old kid who is defending his faith. That's what this boils down to. You can say, no, it's about his anger and his intimidation and his aggressive... none of that would have happened if people had just walked by his posters.
SKYLAR: You know, you know, really, I could have chosen not to go here. I could have just been like, "You know what, I know a lot about computers, I feel I'm qualified for a degree" and I could have just signed a degree saying that and gotten a degree from Taiwan or something for a hundred bucks on the internet. You can go online with a credit card, hundred dollars, and a couple weeks later you get a diploma in the mail. And I actually -- you know, most of that stuff I've learned in college has been extracurricular. During this time, most of the stuff I have done I started out of class. I mean, it doesn't -- I don't even -- this is -- I only come in to this college because I wanted a good college experience. I didn't need to go here but I'm paying you guys an inordinate amount of money to come here and honestly, I don't know why I made that decision, now. I don't think that was -- In retrospect, that was not a good decision because I'm being thrown under the bus for something that the college agrees with, at least formally on the website.
VICTORIA: And in the -- in the annual reports that went out to your donors this week.
SKYLAR: [laughs] Yeah, talk about a hypocrisy.
VICTORIA: Let's see how much you uphold Catholic values on the cover of that. I was devastated to see that.
SKYLAR: I think -- Isn't false advertising illegal?
VICTORIA: Yeah.
SKYLAR: Yeah. So, let's see, that's so far, what, "slander" --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] Well, [unintelligible].
SKYLAR: [continues] -- well, that's breach of contract because the student code is technically a contract. So that would be "breach of contract", you guys are ignoring whole clauses of it that otherwise protect me. So we got "breach of contract", we have "slander", we have "false advertising" -- you guys all -- I mean, several [unintelligible] of you guys owe me lots of money for all the lost time and everything from this, and also, I mean, I actually, earlier today, in anticipation of this meeting... I was actually at church and my entire lower abdomen felt like it was on fire because there was so much stress, so much adrenaline built up that I almost threw up because I just couldn't -- it was just so -- you guys are physically harming me because of this case. You guys are hurting my physical health because of what you're putting me through and I think that's illegal. I mean, so, "slander, Title XI, breach of contract"... All right, here's the thing. If you guys don't realize how screwed up you're making this situation... This is valid in criminal and civil court. And I'm sure there are news outlets that would love to talk about this. There's also case president too. [laughs]
VICTORIA: The other thing I have to bring up before we leave is that somebody here on campus did a serious violation of [unintelligible] rights. Because somebody from Carroll informed an individual in the Boy Scout community that Skylar would not be allowed on campus and that is something we will pursue.
SKYLAR: [interrupts] Yeah, I think we know who did it. They said I wouldn't be able to be a teacher for [unintelligible] University and they told that behind my back to -- from someone that works at Carroll, in administration somewhere -- to somebody that is --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] Unprompted.
SKYLAR: [continues] -- not -- that I barely even know. I only know him because I previously volunteered to teach at a Boy Scout event.
VICTORIA: Twice. And so, I know everybody here's like, "Oh no, that's not my department, that's not my department" --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] It's somebody's department.
VICTORIA: [continues] It's somebody's -- at somewhere, the buck stops and that's what we're asking.
SKYLAR: [interrupts] And if it's not here, it's gonna be in court.
VICTORIA: [continues] Because somebody on this campus --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] -- is accountable.
VICTORIA: [continues] -- must be in charge of something but I mean, both of you are saying, "No, no, it's not us." You didn't write this, you didn't say this. Who did? This has Emily's signature on it, I mean...
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: I believe I said that I helped to author this and to work out the different scenarios --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] You also said that it wasn't up to you.
VICTORIA: You said it wasn't up to you.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: I -- Ultimately, the decision is not mine.
VICTORIA: That's what I'm saying. Everybody here is like "pass, pass, pass, pass."
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: Well, actually, the decision to accept one of these is yours. If you accept it, then I would work with you but I don't --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] I can't accept it in good faith. I cannot accept that. It not only violates -- you're not only telling me to renounce my faith by agreeing that I'm a --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [interrupts] That is not what --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] Yes, it is.
SKYLAR: [interrupts] Yes, it is. You guys are saying that I have to agree that the stuff I did was violating Carroll policy. You guys are telling me -- you guys have to make me say that hanging up the posters was a wrong thing to do.
VICTORIA: Hey, you cannot separate the posters from his conduct. That's the same thing --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] The conduct is a result -- the conduct is a result of me being antagonized by administration because of the posters and being singled out for harassment. You know the video I have -- you know the video I have that --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [unintelligible] I've never had a discussion with you about your faith.
SKYLAR: We're having one right now.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: No, we're not.
SKYLAR: Yeah, we are. This entire thing is about my faith because if I wasn't a firm believer in the Catholic teaching, --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] He wouldn't have hung up the posters.
SKYLAR: [continues] -- I wouldn't have hung up the posters. If I hadn't hung up the posters, nothing would have happened.
VICTORIA: I mean, are Carroll students so delicate that they can't see things they disagree with? Because that's what this is.
SKYLAR: Yeah, if Carroll students are offended by Catholic teaching, what the hell are they doing on this school, at this school?
VICTORIA: A school that at the front page of its website says it is a Catholic school that upholds Catholic teachings.
SKYLAR: Yeah, if people are going to be offended at those teachings, then they just need to be told to shut up or leave. That's their problem to deal with, they can deal with that personally. It's not my problem.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL: [unintelligible]
VICTORIA: He listens to people talk about their conflicting points of view all the time. It's the way it is. You engage. It's liberal arts, we talk about what we think, right? But it's when he says it that everything is a problem. And yes, this doesn't address the posters but that conduct would not have happened without them and without other students taking offense at them. And Renee McMahon's inbox "filling up" as she said because two students emailed her about it.
SKYLAR: Yeah, also, I'd just like to know so... since you don't want to watch the video. About halfway through the video, there actually is a point where -- I think it was you, I don't know, maybe you said -- where, I think this is nearing verbal assault and intimidation and a threat where you said, "We will be done with this nonsense and you will never return." That is just as severe as anything I might have said in that total encounter. Saying I will never return? I like to give context because I'm not an unreasonable person so that was in the context of being a choice like, either I leave or the police are called and I will never return but you know what? I was also giving you guys a decision, either really, hand back the posters or I will continue doing this. And so, if you guys are saying that my actions and words were threatening and intimidating and assaulting and whatever, you guys are just as much -- you guys are just as deep in that.
I remember, you were smirking almost the whole entire time while the police were being called and stuff. Also, it wasn't even an emergency. You guys were lying to 911 about that because it wasn't -- there was no actual emergency. There was just somebody being mad because people were mistreating him and not valuing his religious beliefs at all. I mean, you guys wanna watch the video?
VICTORIA: [interrupts] No, it's three thirty, we gotta go.
SKYLAR: Well, yeah, but they -- I mean, they -- it's not like they have actual real jobs. If they did, they'd actually do their jobs properly and we might as well stay here because --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] We wouldn't be here if they could, so --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] You guys don't even -- you guys obviously don't do your jobs well so why even bother going back and doing them after this meeting --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] Well, they may have other students to --
SKYLAR: [scoffs] Yeah, but yeah, I'm thinking, what, we could probably get people together for a protest. At this point, you guys realize at this point, you're holding expulsion over my head, I have nothing to lose. There's no way -- and I know that there's no way in hell that you guys are just going to let this go so at this point, as far as I'm concerned, the only rules I have to follow are state and federal law. If I'm going to be expelled, I don't give a damn about your rules, which means I am free to do whatever the hell I want. And you realize I'm really mad because I -- I'm the kind of -- I never -- I never swear, to anyone, all right? This is actually very strong language for me, just so you know.
So I am very upset and I know for a fact other people are too. And I know also for a fact that when protests are held at a college, people start looking closely at whether that college is actually a good place to be. And when that happens, people don't go to that college anymore. And when that happens, the college starts losing money. And when that happens, the college is out of business. So, your actions here, what you choose to do can directly -- could be directly responsible for this college being wiped off the face of the earth because of your explicit actions against me.
I'm not the only person that cares about this. I mean, enough people -- people care about it enough that when she talked about it anonymously on the radio, other people called in later in that same hour. Another person called in and wanted to talk about it further. Just some random lady who wasn't even dealing with a college at all. She just called in because she was so concerned. She -- that was just a question and answer show where people call in and get their questions answered. It wasn't even a real show. This college will have -- there's such a potential for a crazy PR [unintelligible] I'm surprised you guys aren't siding with me because as far as I can tell, the only thing the college cares about is its public image and its agenda. And your public image is about to go down the toilet and not come back for a long time, if it ever does, because of your actions. I'm surprised -- I'm am kind of surprised that you guys aren't -- oh, are you writing it down as a threat?
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: You're recording what you're saying, I think I can write it down.
SKYLAR: Yeah, I know, but --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: No, no.
SKYLAR: Yeah, I'm fine with you writing stuff down, I'm just calling you because it's probably gonna -- I know the last time how I said that with Renee --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] Renee did that, yeah. She was ridiculous.
SKYLAR: [continues] -- and she started writing down how it was a threat on her notepad. Well, everyone's ridiculous. This whole -- as far -- I don't even think there's a conservative person in this thing. I mean, even the IT department is on a liberal power trip with censorship and stuff. There are websites you can't go to because IT doesn't want you to be -- because there's websites that have software on them that let you not be tracked by IT and they blocked those websites because they want to have complete... you guys just all have a power trip...
VICTORIA: [interrupts] Sky, we've gotta go.
SKYLAR: Yeah, I have some press releases to write.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: So, can I just ask for clarification on one thing? If we don't hear from you about a decision on this, do we automatically proceed with the conduct hearing?
VICTORIA: Yes.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: And you would have an opportunity to --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] And then if you do hear from us, we proceed with the conduct hearing.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: Oh. If you choose --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: You have the option to --
VICTORIA: Right but we're not taking those --
SKYLAR: [talking loudly] Those aren't choices, those are ultimatums! That's an ultimatum, not a choice.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: Either way, we would then move to the conduct hearing.
VICTORIA: Because you said earlier we needed to let you know in writing before that would happen.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: I am writing.
VICTORIA: She said if nothing happens, it also happens.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: We move forward to the next step.
SKYLAR: That's actually, that's also, just for the record, that's why I didn't say -- that's why I didn't bother responding to your statements because it wasn't worth my time. It was going to come to this either way so I could just talk about it here.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: I think it says at the end that's what happened.
SKYLAR: [continues] I mean, it wasn't worth my time -- it wasn't worth my time to write up a big long thing that you're just going to skim, take out of context, and ignore the rest of.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #1: Okay.
SKYLAR: I did object to lots of it but that's why I have an annotated video explaining the whole thing now. And I'll be emailing, I guess -- hey, maybe I should just fire up my server and send an email to everyone on campus with the video again.
WOMAN: [sigh] I don't know. [unintelligible]
SKYLAR: [interrupts] Also, you should advise your IT people that I think the Carroll email server has -- for the faculty -- has a hard time with lots and lots of blind carbon copies because it doesn't seem like a lot of faculty members got my original email which I sent through my [unintelligible] email but my later email was sent one email per person just in a flood. So I think you should probably look into that because I know Gmail can handle up to five hundred recipients on a message but I guess their faculty server isn't up to scratch because it dropped some of them. Just some.
Also, I mean, basically I knew you were going to expel me ever since you guys shut off access to my coursework online. Like, I have no way --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] I mean, he [unintelligible] do work anyways.
SKYLAR: Yeah, [unintelligible]. Then you basically make it impossible for me to do that by locking me out of my email and out of all of my --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [interrupts] You weren't locked out until the emails [unintelligible].
SKYLAR: [interrupts] Well, here's the thing. That didn't change the situation. Also, I never sent emails to people at Carroll College. You guys can't stop me from just talking to people at the college, that's not a thing that you -- like, if I know someone that works at the college and they want me over to their house or wherever, just to hang out or whatever --
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: [interrupts] You absolutely can do that.
SKYLAR: No, and that's not what you guys said.
SCHOOL OFFICIAL #2: Yes, you can!
SKYLAR: [continues] No, you guys have said previously I cannot. I made sure to ask you guys that and you said I can't. Also, by the way, when you guys said I can't attend the Reboot Live, that's a violation of my religious freedom. You guys are saying that I couldn't exercise my faith.
VICTORIA: [interrupts] They might not even know --
SKYLAR: [continues] Yeah, they might because their [unintelligible] is dedicated to screwing things up. But yeah, so you know, you did do that. That's another point against you. So far, as far as I'm concerned, it's what, probably like twenty points to us, one point to you because I raised my voice to you in a meeting.
VICTORIA: He's loud and he talks fast.
SKYLAR: Since when is that wrong? I was actually in a discussion with someone once, this is just an example, someone else involved with Carroll who I used to like to have debates with and stuff on all sorts of things. This one, it wasn't like gay marriage or anything, it was actually on, get this, if glass is a liquid or a solid. And he raised his voice so loud that everyone in his [unintelligible] got quiet and someone came over to ask if he was okay. Should I have filed a thing because he was being aggressive?
VICTORIA: [interrupts] You should have filed a --
SKYLAR: [continues] He also, actually a couple times grabbed my phone and wouldn't give it back until I apologized for something I said. Stuff like this. I didn't do it because I didn't think it was worth going through the whole process. It was a thing between a couple people where we didn't really get along and people not getting along, that sums up human history. That sums up every single conflict in human history ever: people didn't get along. [unintelligible] So I, I guess I should have been complaining because now I'm being thrown under the bus because people thought to complain.
VICTORIA: So I guess when you go back and live your life again, you'll be a whiner who clogs up the system, making charges against everybody who hurt your feelings.
SKYLAR: Yeah.
VICTORIA: That's what you have to do. Okay, we have to go. Come on. Wish I could thank you for your time but I'm not thankful for this [unintelligible].
SKYLAR: Yeah. So one of the --
VICTORIA: [interrupts] Skylar, no, we have to --
SKYLAR: [interrupts] -- I got a message on my website from someone who I actually had a really great conversation with. I sat with and talked about all kinds of things [unintelligible] like at lunch in the Stack once. And it turns out he's gay. He came out to Father Murrigan. You know what, if I would have known that, I wouldn't have cared. Looking back, this might just be because it was a long time ago, he might have seemed a bit gay, I don't care. But he's saying I am a bigot and he recommends that I transfer to a college that requires homosexual people to take oaths of chastity and stuff and he's like "Pretty cool, right?"
VICTORIA: Well, which is actually what the Catholic Church requires anyway.
SKYLAR: Yeah. You guys have a copy of the whole thing which explains -- it also has [unintelligible] just for your perusal. If you --
VICTORIA: Okay, did you want to leave a copy of the video notes?
SKYLAR: Oh, well, they have a copy of that too, I printed off two copies. Yeah, I printed off two copies of the thing. Okay, I'm just gonna --