The president of the Citrus Students for Life Club recently apologized for using the club’s Instagram to threaten to send a white supremacist group after an activist.
Citrus Students for Life is an anti-abortion club at Citrus College that is part of the bigger organization, Students For Life, which helps establish anti-abortion clubs and trains students to be anti-abortion advocates at college campuses across the nation.
The Citrus Students for Life club is not fully recognized by Citrus College as its approval has not been voted on by the Associated Students of Citrus College, but it was approved by the Citrus College Inter Club Council on April 10.
On April 14, the president of the Citrus College chapter of the club, Kayla Garcia, used the Citrus Students for Life Instagram to send a DM to a pro-choice activist who does not attend Citrus College, Derek Torstenson that read “Now I know who doxxed me and babies lives matter! You cannot stop us we don’t care about you! Watch your back cause us far right don’t play. I’ll send the proudboys after U.”
An article by Encyclopedia Britannica says the Proud Boys are an international neo-fascist and white nationalist organization. They are categorized as a terrorist organization by the Canadian government.
Garcia apologized for the direct message in an Instagram story posted to her personal account the next day, writing in part, “I am very sorry to those I affected. I am going through something in my personal life and I will take accountability to say that will never happen! That is not what I am representing.”
The DM was a response to a story Torstenson posted where he reposted a photo that promoted a pro-life protest. Torstenson tagged a group called Resistance Coalition LA, and added a text box reading, “Hey @resistancecoalitonla heads up. Show up and counter these fascists.”
In an interview with the Clarion, Garcia said she planned to attend this protest and helped organize it, so she said she felt threatened by Torstenson’s post.
“He’s basically sending antifa after us. He’s sending people to be violent,” Garcia said.
The founder and facilitator of Resistance Coalition LA, Abby Thomas, wrote in an Instagram direct message to the Clarion that calling the group violent is “continued propaganda coming from dangerous right wing groups. To hear an anti-abortion club say that our organization is violent when there is no evidence to suggest as such would suggest to me that this individual probably is working directly with the Proud Boys or other far right organization and heard the propaganda straight from them.”
Garcia told the Clarion she is not associated with the Proud Boys and, although she has attended rallies where the Proud Boys were present, she had no actual intentions of sending the Proud Boys after Torstenson.
Thomas also mentioned that Anifa is not a centralized group and is actually more of a blanket term for people who oppose fascism as Antifa is a conjunction of Anti-Fascist. Thomas wrote that although Resistance Coalition LA is anti-fascist, they “do not support a ‘violent antifa organization.’”
Garcia said she responded to Torstentson’s story so aggressively because he had previously sent her derogatory text messages about her being pro-life and said he “wished something bad happened to (her) daughter,” Garcia said.
Garcia told the Clarion the DM she sent through the club’s account misrepresents what she tries to advocate for.
“I’m not a violent person,” Garcia said. “I’m actually very open to everybody on campus whether they’re pro choice, pro life, LGBTQ, I’m not gonna sit here and judge but at the end of the day, don’t go at me and my club and expect me to just not respond.”
Garcia also said someone told her a left-wing group called Bamn posted Garcia’s full name and major on Instagram and spread her phone number, address and Social Security number on a Telegram group chat.
The Clarion confirmed that a post on Bamn’s Instagram post does contain Garcia’s full name and major. However, that information is publicly available by requesting a third-party enrollment verification from Citrus College.
The Clarion reached out to Bamn about doxxing Garcia’s other personal information but has not received a response.
In the threatening DM, Garcia accused Torstenson of being a part of that information leak. But Torstenson said he did not doxx Garcia and does not work with any group in California as he lives out of state. Torstenson said he only knows about Resistance Coalition LA because of its chapter in Washington, D.C.
For Torstenson, the threat was “disturbing,” especially considering that he had been physically attacked by who he said were Proud Boys at a protest in Washington, D.C. The event was caught on video which shows Torstenson being grabbed from behind and then shoved to the ground by two men.
Despite this, Torstenson maintained that he “will never back down from the far right.”
The Citrus College Standards of Conduct say that “threatening to cause physical injury to another person” is cause for “discipline, including but not limited to the removal, suspension, or expulsion of a student.” But with the threat not being completely direct, it is not clear whether disciplinary action will be taken against Garcia or the Citrus Students for Life club.
