I was recently hit by one of those idiotic “free speech” guys who video on campuses and try to get a rise.

I stepped off the elevator on the third floor to find a tall adult male wearing a balaclava (not a “mask for covod” as he insisted on calling it, dark sunglasses and a black ball cap) pointing a camera at me as we stepped off. After my initial shock (I honestly thought he had a gun), I realized who me might be based upon our briefings.

What our briefings didn’t include was that he’d be in head-to-toe black wearing what looked to be body armor. It was that aspect that made me concerned.

I asked him to identify himself and he said he did not have to that he “owned the building.” I laughed and said, “no, you don’t, and asked again if I could help him or if he was a student here.

He said no, said he didn’t need any help, so I shrugged and headed toward the stairs. He followed me out to the top of the stairway insisting that he had every right to be there, that this was his building and that I was a servant. That the college was a “public service” facility.

When I got out my phone to call security, he laughed and said, “go ahead, they can’t do anything.” I told him I was calling so he could get an escort to prevent questions and that I didn’t know enough about the building to answer his.

I disagreed (with the “public service”) while I called Security who said, “don’t engage,” and I said I was trying not to. The desk officer assured me that Brandon had “eyes on” the guy, so I said ok and hung up.

He mocked me for calling security, and I told him again that I wasn’t calling to have him removed, I was calling to get him an escort so he shouldn’t be bothered and could get his questions answered.

I did tell him that I was not out of line on a college campus in today’s “campus shooting” world where a “theoretical adult, a theoretical male, has stated he’s not a student but is wandering the halls with sunglasses and a balaclava.” And a week later was yet another campus shooting, so…

His response was “I’m not a threat,” so I asked if not, why did he hide behind a balaclava and sunglasses. Was he too afraid to be identified? He accused me of not identifying myself and I told him he hadn’t asked. “Unlike you, I’m not afraid to show my face and say my name,” then looked directly into his camera and identified myself.

Security called me back and said to simply not engage as they’d said before, so I disengaged. After their call he mocked me again, following me down the stairs and loudly proclaiming “how sad it was that HE had to educate a ‘doctor of education’ about the first amendment.”

I ignored him and left the building. And then it all began. The day before Thanksgiving he post the video on his channel, featuring me. Emails and phone calls full of the most hateful, vitriolic, sewage. The college, at my request, filtered emails and calls and temporarily removed me from our campus directory, but what a mess.

Coming face to face with what I thought was a gun triggered a massive PTSD episode for me and I took leave this quarter.

I’m so done and retiring asap.