B-CU: Group opposed to DeVos' commencement speech protests outside ceremony

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The fight over a controversial Bethune-Cookman University commencement speaker has prompted strong accusations from both sides and a protest outside the ceremony.

U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos spoke and was booed several times Wednesday at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach.

Although 100 people were expected, about 50 showed up to protest.

Watch: People protest at Bethune Cookman University

Many had anti-DeVos signs, although there were a few signs congratulating the graduates.

The president of the NAACP said the students do not support the secretary and her values, and believes the university made the wrong choice by letting her speak.

“It takes away from what this day means to graduates, their families, citizens and the people are very unhappy,” said Cynthia Slater.

The group opposed to DeVos’ visit said it collected 60,000 signatures from people seeking DeVos’ invitation to be withdrawn, but the school said that isn’t true.

B-CU administrators said petitioners came in with boxes, but some of them were nearly empty.

Some students have voiced outrage over the university’s decision to invite DeVos because of comments she made calling historically black colleges and universities “pioneers of school choice.”

She later said the schools originated from racial segregation.

School administrators said that when they combined the six boxes of petitions, they filled only a quarter of a single box. Officials said there were closer to 6,000 petitions, not 60,000.

The petitioners fired back late Tuesday, saying that school officials should recount the petitions and that it stands by the claim that it submitted 59,215 signatures.

“The bottom line is Secretary DeVos doesn't share our community's values and continues to misunderstand the impact and legacy that historically black colleges and universities have played in public education and America,” the group said in a written statement.

Students said they heard that protesters could have their degrees withheld or they could be fined if they protested. But the university said students are free to protest as long as it doesn't disrupt the graduation ceremony.

Marissa Pantore, a graduating senior at B-CU, sat out of Wednesday's commencement ceremony.

"I'm not going to go," she said. "I was planning on going, but now I don't want to go, because if I go, it's just not going to look right."

The school encouraged students to embrace differences on its Facebook page, but that wasn't enough for Pantore, her classmates and coworkers, she said.

"They are just not going to go," Pantore said. "It will just make her look good. And I don't want to go."

Cox Media Group