Why have I seen so many pictures with dead babies on them? Why are the people most publicly opposed to the concept of dead babies the ones showing me these pictures? They usually tell me I am going to Hell, which feels rude since they hardly know me. “They” here means the protestors that make the routine pilgrimage to the Drill Field.
They are a very loud and interesting bunch. Each of their visits to campus involves screaming, counter protestors, screaming at counter protestors and counter protestors countering screaming with protests. It is exhausting, unproductive and one of the most hostile environments one can encounter on campus. 
My first experience with these protestors was my freshman year. I turned the corner hoping to find one of the small tables in the shade outside of the Colvard Student Union and, instead, learned that I was an unrepentant sinner damned to Hell. After studying the protestors for a moment, I sighed, then trudged off to the Mitchell Memorial Library to, hopefully, find some peace and quiet. I imagine this is the experience of many of my fellow students.
According to Mississippi State University’s Discrimination, Harassment, and Retaliation policy OP 3.03, harassment may include but is not limited to “severe, pervasive, persistent and objectively offensive insults, jokes or derisive comments relating to a person’s protected characteristic.”
This policy does not only apply to students; it applies to faculty, staff and visitors, too. It gives us a good idea that what the protestors are doing is awful and can be defined as harassment. I, as well as other students posting on social media, have also noticed that these protestors seem to take special interest in women who walk past them, harassing them far more than they would a male student.
Another university policy, Free Speech and Assembly OP 91.304, states the guidelines assemblies must follow. Guideline number six states “No activity will be permitted that blocks access to university buildings, streets, sidewalks, or facilities, defaces property, injures individuals, unreasonably interferes with regular or authorized university activities or functions, or disrupts the free flow of pedestrian or vehicular traffic.”
The protestors typically stand in the middle of the walkways outside of the Union, and certainly do impede traffic with their large groups and signs. Their divisive rhetoric gathers counter protestors, which clogs the paths further. Again, this policy shows us that these protestors are acting in a way that myself and many other students deem unacceptable. 
Additionally, a group of students wrote an open letter to the university regarding intrusive protestors campus, and the petition has garnered over 460 signatures. 
If we expect students at this university, many just barely old enough to be called adults, to behave properly and follow these simple guidelines, why then should it be acceptable for these people to come onto campus, harass people and impede students’ ability to attend classes?
This is not about the religion. Periodically, there are pairs of older women near the library handing out pamphlets, and no one has petitioned to bar them from campus. There are thriving student-led and organized religious groups here who follow the university’s guidelines.
This is about reading, “YOU ARE GOING TO HELL,” at 10:30 in the morning. This is about “YOU ARE GOING TO HELL,” when really, earnestly, where I am trying to go is Chick-fil-a. These protestors breed an awful environment on campus, so much so that I dread even coming near the Union on Thursdays, their normal assembly day, because I might run into them.
According to Mississippi Code Title 91, Chapter 35, Section 15, disturbing the peace is defined as any act that “disturbs the public peace, or the peace of others, by violent, or loud, or insulting, or profane, or indecent, or offensive, or boisterous conduct or language, or by intimidation, or seeking to intimidate any other person or persons, or by conduct either calculated to provoke a breach of the peace, or by conduct which may lead to a breach of the peace, or by any other act.” I am not a lawyer, but the protestors are certainly loud, insulting and intimidating. I would describe my peace as disturbed. 
I am not here to argue that these protestors should not be allowed on campus or should not be protesting anywhere. However, I do raise issue with how they go about their protesting. They harass students, impede free movement around campus and are so incredibly loud that you can almost hear them from Simrall Hall. All I want is for everyone on campus to feel safe and happy and not have to worry about the fiery pit of Hell any time soon.