Students’ Union president censured and censored over pro-life tweet
by Archbishop Cranmer:
Gabriel Baraldi is a student a Bournemouth & Poole College. According to his Twitter biography, he is a “Tri-National Green Conservative Christian Vegetarian”. His bio also used to say “@BPCollege SU President”, but he was forced to delete that after he published a pro-life tweet which expressed the view that “Abortions should be reduced to when the woman’s life is at risk only”. It was a perfectly straightforward statement of Roman Catholic belief and moral teaching, and it was made on his personal Twitter account.
Complaints were made to Bournemouth & Poole College, who must have passed them on to the Executive Committee of the Students’ Union, which is run by students for students (it is not run by academic authorities at Bournemouth & Poole College). Apparently, the Executive Committee (or just the Equalities VP?) considered the tweet offensive, so it had to be deleted. Gabriel Baraldi (or, to give him his full name [which he seems to prefer] Gabriel Lemos Finocchio Baraldi] was also forced to remove mention of his being SU President from his Twitter bio.
This was the offensive tweet:
It isn’t clear if students who expressed the view that his mother should have aborted him have also been censured and forced to delete their offensive tweets, or whether it’s only the SU President who isn’t permitted to express a personal view on his personal Twitter account; or, indeed, whether it’s only Christians who aren’t permitted to express a personal religious-moral view. Some thought that by mentioning in his Twitter bio the fact that he is SU President conveyed the view that his utterance was made on behalf of the Student’s Union:
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