NIU urges controlled response to protesters
Amid concerns a religious protest group will try to disrupt Sunday's campus memorial, NIU police have trained about 90 people in peaceful and legal techniques for shielding mourners and keeping the proceedings dignified.
Thousands of Northern Illinois University supporters banded together online and in person after a Kansas hate group notorious for honing in on high-profile tragedies vowed to picket the service.
The fury of the response raised concerns at the school that the counter-protests would spiral out of control and create the spectacle the group craves.
About 30 of those who attended the training plan to hold a large tarp that will block out the group.
University officials have requested that the counter-protests be limited to those who have received training.
"The university asks that you help us by not giving the hate protesters the attention, publicity and credibility that they are aiming for," a message on the university's Web site states.
NIU orchestrated a response after outraged students flooded the Internet with protest plans. Several social networking sites immediately popped up after the Kansas group announced its intention to intrude on the tragedy.
One such site on Facebook boasts 14,000 members.
"Those Facebook pages became huge, to say the least," said Margie Cook, director of the NIU Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender resource center.
The Kansas group protests funerals across the country because it believes the deaths are God's punishment for America's acceptance of homosexuals.
"It became clear that … students felt very compelled to do something in response to this hate group and we, meaning the university, needed to try to help guide that response," Cook said.
In hundreds of Web postings, NIU supporters suggested actions ranging from peaceful protest chants to human shields to physical confrontation.
Others advocated ignoring the group altogether.
They "will stay as long as they get attention," said one representative post. "We also cannot harass them and give them any reason to possibly sue us -- otherwise we will be funding more … activism."
The Kansas group, which gained national notoriety for protesting the funerals of fallen soldiers, already crashed the funerals of two NIU shooting victims.
Coordinated efforts by police, firefighters, public works employees and other volunteers there blunted their inflammatory message.
At the funeral for 19-year-old Ryanne Mace, a row of St. Charles snowplows formed a physical and highly visible barrier between the park where the protesters were assembled and the entrance of the church.
About 40 officers from the Kane County Mobile Task Force, in riot gear, stood guard around the park to protect the mourners from the protesters.
"A lot of people assisted," McCurtain said. "It took a lot of planning and a lot of thought."
Just three members of the hate group picketed Mace's funeral.