ASU students are wrong. Kyle Rittenhouse has every right to attend ASU (should he qualify)

Students at Arizona State University are planning a protest this afternoon, demanding that the university deny Kyle Rittenhouse “further admission” to the school and denounce him as a “racist killer.”

“We, the students of Arizona State University refuse to welcome a murderer onto our campus,” says their online petition, signed by 15,000 people.

“Students don’t feel safe with the prospect of having someone like Kyle Rittenhouse at ASU,” one student, a member of Students For Socialism ASU, tells AZFamily.

“We are calling on the ASU administration, and our president Michael Crow, to stop hiding and denounce white supremacy by denying Rittenhouse any further enrollment at ASU,” says a statement signed by the socialist students and three other liberal student groups.

Students want ASU to be judge and jury?

In addition to denying him entry to the university – something he has talked about but ASU says he has not sought – the students also want ASU to “release a statement against white supremacy & racist killer Kyle Rittenhouse.”

In other words, they are asking ASU to serve as judge and jury in a case where the judge and jury already have spoken.

You can disagree with their verdict.

You can point to other cases that suggest that a Black man standing in Rittenhouse’s shoes would have faced a far different outcome – assuming he lived long enough to get in front of a jury.

What you cannot do is expect ASU to deny Kyle Rittenhouse entry to the university, should he qualify, or call him a murderer, racist or otherwise. That’s not only slander. It’s inaccurate, given the jury verdict.

Rittenhouse was acquitted of all charges stemming from his decision to grab his AR-style rifle and run off to a racial injustice protest, where the only people who died did so at the business end of Rittenhouse’s rifle.

Rittenhouse doesn't seem like ASU material

As appalling as that may be, Rittenhouse now has the right to walk freely among us.

Even at ASU, should he meet the qualifications to attend. (Though Kyle, I hear the University of Illinois has a great nursing school. You really should check it out.)

Despite his recent talk about coming to ASU, I don’t see Rittenhouse as Sun Devil material.

More likely we’ll all be paying his salary soon.

Far right Republicans are falling all over themselves to celebrate the gun-toting teen who beat a murder rap.

Naturally, Rep. Paul Gosar is looking to hire the young man.

“Justice was served for #KyleRittenhouse and he is fully exonerated," Gosar tweeted last week. "As I said last year, obviously self-defense. I will arm wrestle @mattgaetz to get dibs for Kyle as an intern.”

Note to Gosar: If you do hire Rittenhouse, perhaps he can give you some tips on how to kill a congresswoman for your next fantasy video.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kyle Rittenhouse has every right to attend ASU (if he qualifies)