Conservatives complain when a liberal historian at Saddleback College takes down their 9-11 poster

The removal of student posters remembering the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks from a campus building has sparked debate at Saddleback College.

Last week, members of a conservative student group, Young Americans for Freedom, held a weekday remembrance for the victims of 9/11, placing miniature flags on the quad’s lawn and putting up posters in free-speech areas as well as on a building without administrative approval.

Margot Lovett, chairwoman of Saddleback’s history department and a professor of women’s and gender studies, took down the posters Thursday morning, a school official acknowledged.

The posters read “9/11 Never Forget,” with images of the twin towers and other terrorist attacks since then. The students filmed Lovett on a cellphone and put the footage on YouTube, where it had collected about 175,000 views.

In the video, Lovett approaches the students, politely tells them that putting posters on buildings violates school policy and directs them to student services for further instructions.

Representatives from Young Americans for Freedom, who are working through the annual process of becoming an active student club, said the policy on posting items on walls is vague, missing from the student handbook, and another example of bureaucratic red tape preventing students from expressing themselves. ...