Salisbury University community members take a stand against recent violence

SALISBURY, MD. – The alleged violent hate crime involving 12 Salisbury University students was a crime Montana Native Alex Mattie never thought he would hear about in Salisbury.

For the graduate student who spoke to WMDT, the situation shook the campus community.

“Honestly, my first thought was Matthew Shepard. He was a gay man who was murdered in Wyoming in the ’90s because of his sexuality, and I couldn’t stop thinking about that because that was close to home then and this is close to home now,” Mattie said.

Sophomore Moe Collins said allegations that 12 students kicked, punched and spit on an adult male victim because of his sexual orientation prompted many students to seek counseling resources through the university’s LGBTQ+ alliance.

“A lot of students are afraid of going to classes and stuff, so we as an alliance are trying to support students’ mental health,” Collins said. “I feel like this event will bring us together through troubling times, rather than tearing us apart like people want to do.”

As students continue to deal with challenges, Mattie said participating in such events and standing against violence is just the first step in the healing process.

“Homophobia isn’t gone, transphobia isn’t gone; we’d like to think we live in a world where we’ve left racism and sexism and all that behind, but it’s still around,” Mattie said. “As Angela Davis said, freedom is a constant struggle. “We must continue to fight for our freedom whenever and wherever we are.”