KCC Spokesman Discusses Free Speech Lawsuit Settlement

Last month, Kellogg Community College settled a lawsuit filed against them regarding free speech, and a college spokesperson is clarifying some points.

KCC Public Information and Marketing Director Eric Greene tells 95.3 WBCK's Morning Show that the 2016 incident was “part of a national campaign that KCC got caught up in”. Green says that they were trying to "intentionally provoke action" from law enforcement and college officials, and that the demonstrators were instructed to record the event in order to spread a message.

In September 2016, members of the group Young Americans for Liberty had been on KCC's Battle Creek North Avenue Campus, handing out pocket-sized constitutions and recruiting members. Greene says that the demonstrators were asked to apply for approval to solicit from the Office of Student Life multiple times, but they refused. He says that "this group had done that process before".

Those YAL members were eventually arrested for trespassing after they wouldn't leave the campus, and two of those members eventually sued KCC with representation by the Alliance Defending Freedom. That lawsuit was eventually settled financially in January 2018.

KCC "on its own" decided to institute a new Freedom of Expression Policy back in August 2017, and that police was later modified in January per the terms of the lawsuit settlement. The college did not admit any liability in the settlement.