Update from Students for Life of America: “Between 1pm yesterday and 1:30pm today, 300 of the 330 crosses were stolen from the display. The only remaining crosses are those spelling “Love All” from the previous vandalism last week. The UB SFL group notified us of the missing $700 display this afternoon. The group has notified campus police and evidence has been added to the current investigation.”
BUFFALO, New York, May 10, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The complaints of a student pro-life group to the administration of the State University of New York at Buffalo have fallen on deaf ears after their Cemetery of the Innocents display was destroyed and vandalized.
Vandals last week broke several crosses in the display, which were intended to symbolize the graves of children killed by abortion, and rearranged them into mocking slogans such as “pro-choice” and “LOL babies.”
University of Buffalo (UB) student Sara Buttitta, president of UB Students for Life, told LifeSiteNews.com that the damage occurred in three stages starting Wednesday night and ending Thursday night, with one attack happening in broad daylight. Police said that there were no witnesses to the attacks.
“I think we kind of half expected it, but we didn’t expect it to the degree that it was,” said Buttitta, 21, a senior at the school. “That took a long time for someone to pull up all 330 crosses.”
The head of UB police was cooperative, said Buttitta, but could only suggest that the group place the display in a less accessible area. Meanwhile, administration was less helpful.
“We wanted a statement condemning it. We didn’t expect that [Unversity at Buffalo president Satish Tripathi] wouldn’t even take our phone call,” she said. Buttitta says she was transferred to the UB President to the Office of Student Life and Services instead.
Students for Life of America (SFLA) said the school confirmed Tripathi will not make a public condemnation of the vandalism until his office receives the results of a campus police investigation.
“The discrimination that the UB Students for Life group has faced on campus is outrageous, “ commented Kristan Hawkins, Executive Director of Students for Life, in a press release Tuesday.
“This vandalism is a clear violation of the students’ freedom of speech, and Students for Life of America is awaiting a comment from the President of the University following the investigation on campus. We hope that the comment will send a strong signal that UB does not allow discrimination on campus and that this type of unlawful behavior is unacceptable.”
Last month, vandals attacked a similar pro-life cemetery display at Clarion University in Pennsylvania by inverting all 350 crosses, the strongest iteration in a long history of vandalism there. https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/vandals-attack-pro-life-cemetery-display/