A professor at an art college in New York City has come under fire on social media after a video surfaced of her cursing at pro-life students over a display at their school, which she later tore down. Shellyne Rodriguez, 46, an adjunct lecturer told pro-life students that they were "triggering" her students by tabling inside Hunter College in Manhattan earlier this month.
The video posted online shows the interaction Rodriguez losing her cool at a group of students who put up an information station against abortion inside the school building, cursing and throwing their leaflets. The footage was posted to Twitter by Students for Life of America.
Losing Her Cool
Rodriguez describes herself as both an artist and an activist in her bio and claims that her work utilizes, "utilizes text, drawing, painting, collage and sculpture to depict spaces and subjects engaged in strategies of survival against erasure and subjugation."
"You're not educating s–t. This is f–king propaganda," Rodrigues can be heard telling the students tabling on May 2 in the video posted on twitter. "What are you going to do like anti-trans next?"
A male student behind the table can then be heard calmly telling her, "I mean no, we're talking about abortion," and he apologized for "trigger[ing]" her students.
According to the video, Rodriguez called their demonstration "violent" and yelled at the male student seated behind the table, "You can't even have an f-king baby," saying he wasn't sorry.
She then tossed the anti-abortion papers off the table toward the students while yelling "f-k this s-t" and left the room, according to the video footage.
In a statement to Fox News, Hunter College, a public institution that is a part of the city's CUNY program, verified that Rodriguez works there and stated that it is aware of the altercation.
Hunter is "taking this matter very seriously," the college's spokeswoman told the outlet.
"The provost has opened an investigation into the professor's actions," the rep said.
Who's Anti?
It is still unclear what happened before the interaction before the video begins. Rodriguez's actions were legitimate, according to the PSC Graduate Center, a labor union group that represents CUNY professors and graduate assistants, which claimed it stands by Rodriguez "against right-wing anti-abortion backlash".
It was claimed by the center that the pro-life students "set up a table and prominent banners to propagate dangerously false propaganda."
The group believes Rodriguez "constructively challenged" the anti-abortion display despite her irate and profane remarks.
Members of the group who have not been named continued: "Her actions to stop the tabling were fully justified."
They added: "We stand with Shellyne Rodriguez and stand against the right-wing anti-abortion backlash she is experiencing!"
They described what had happened following Rodriguez's tirade in a number of panels. "On May 12, Shellyne was summoned to the Hunter Provost's office, where she was questioned by the provost and the dean, diversity and campus relations."
It's unclear what transpired after that meeting or whether Rodriguez, an adjunct at both institutions, is still employed there.
The student display table was labeled an "anti-choice disinformation table" by the pro-abortion organization at the school.
The hashtag "Stand with Shellyne Rodriguez" and a clinched fist appear at the end of the Instagram post.
According to an interview with ARTNews, Rodriguez is an outspoken progressive who quotes works by Mike Davis, W.E.B. Du Bois, Angela Davis, and Karl Marx in one of her pieces.
