College Declares Haymarket Riot Reference a Violent Threat to College President

College Declares Haymarket Riot Reference a Violent Threat to College President - FIRE
CHICAGO, June 8, 2015—Oakton Community College (OCC) is insisting that a one-sentence “May Day” email referencing the Haymarket Riot sent by a faculty member to several colleagues constituted a “true threat” to the college president.
Lawyers for the Chicago-area college argue that the email, which noted that May Day (May 1) is a traditional time for workers to remember the riot, threatened violence.
Last month, OCC demanded that the now former faculty member “cease and desist” from similar communications in the future or face potential legal action.
May Day is celebrated every year on May 1 by the international labor movement to commemorate the fight for workers’ rights.
The celebration is historically associated with the 1886 Haymarket Riot in Chicago.
...On May 1, Chester Kulis sent an email to OCC colleagues that read, “Have a happy MAY DAY when workers across the world celebrate their struggle for union rights and remember the Haymarket riot in Chicago.” The email, titled “May Day – The Antidote to the Peg Lee Gala,” was written in response to a reception hosted by OCC in celebration of the retirement of college president Margaret B. Lee.
...In response to Kulis’s email, an attorney representing OCC wrote a cease-and-desist letter to Kulis on May 7, arguing that Kulis’s reference to the Haymarket Riot was a threat of violence because the famous workers’ rally in Chicago “resulted in 11 deaths and more than 70 people injured.” The attorney, Philip H. Gerner III, went on to say that similar future communications could result in legal action..."