I attended a speaking engagement by the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, at Syracuse University in May of this year and was delighted to see that although she was surrounded by the Irish police upon entering and exiting the building, none of those in attendance was. None of us was threatened or man-handled in any way. Security stayed close to her and at a respectful distance from us.

That evening, upon returning to the library from the garage where I had parked my car, I sought out a campus security guard to tell him my car was in the garage and the attendant had gone home for the night. He responded with such courtesy. He said he would call someone to open the garage, and that his job was to make sure I got home safe. His exact words were, “My job is to make sure you get home safe.”

When parents entrust a university to educate their children they do so with the expectation that the students will be safe. If a university invites a guest-speaker and that speaker agrees to a question and answer format, campus security should be made aware ahead of time that this format has been scheduled. It is not their job to decide which questions will be permitted and which will not.

As a journalism student, Andy Meyer was asking a pointed question. John Kerry was not permitted to answer the question due to the interference of approximately six or seven campus security guards. They acted rashly. They acted callously. They acted with a complete disregard for the pain he suffered. Such callous disregard for human suffering is, we should not forget, often associated with criminal behavior. No university needs security guards who would stoop to doing what these guards did.