Barrington High School grad protests speaker at his college

Recent Barrington High School graduate Quentin Boothman made national headlines recently when he protested a public speaking event at his college.

Watch video from the protest.

Quentin, a freshman at Texas A&M, stood a few feet in front of the stage where Richard Spencer was speaking. Mr. Spencer is often described as a white supremacist, but describes himself as an identitarian. His attendance at the Texas A&M event drew the attention of many people in that area, including Mr. Boothman, who is a National Merit Scholar.

"Before the protest, I wasn't sure if I would be able to get into the event, what the proportion of protesters to Nazis would be, or if I would be kicked out," wrote Quentin in a recent email, "but I knew that Nazis didn't belong on our campus, or anywhere, so I wanted to make sure Spencer knew how unwelcome he was." 

Quentin brought along a sign — it showed an image of Adolph Hitler with a gun pointed at him and the words "Follow Your Leader" — and eventually made his way to the front of the room, standing about 10 feet from the stage.

He said he wanted to make sure Mr. Spencer saw the sign.

"I stood there for a little while as he berated me, turned around to make sure everyone saw my sign … and turned back towards him. A supporter to my left told me to sit down, and I asked him if he would make me. He declined," wrote Quentin.

A few moments later, Quentin was joined by a friend, Jalen Brown, and then was quickly confronted by a pro-Spencer attendee.

"It was surprising and a little unsettling that someone tried to stop us from silently standing there, as we were not the only ones doing so, but we weren't about to let one old guy stop us, so we tried to move around him," Quentin wrote.

"He pushed Jalen back (was it because Jalen is black? Probably), and then pushed me back. Two other older, white men, both bald stood up and joined him, and the first man pushed us back again. Seeing three very large, older, white men try to physically block us from silently standing was very unsettling, but I knew that my friends and the other protesters in the room would have my back, so we stayed up there."

Quentin said he was joined by some other friends and together they hollered back at the pro-Spencer crowd. Eventually, police broke up the confrontation and ordered people away from the stage.

"I kept my sign in the aisle for the rest of the speech, until the end, when I went up and asked him a question…" Quentin wrote. "He failed to adequately respond, just as he did to all the questions he didn't like. The whole experience was a little scary, but so is white supremacy, so it was worth it."

The recent Barrington High School graduate said most people on his college campus oppose the ideals Mr. Spencer represents, although there were quite a few supporters at the recent event. 

"Almost everyone at A&M dislikes him, and several of my most conservative friends came to protest," Quentin wrote. "I also spoke to several supporters of Spencer outside of the speech. They were hateful and illogical, trying to force me to admit that Islam is a destructive religion, African-Americans are genetically predisposed to crime, Asian people have it better than white people, and that white people build all culture and civilization.

"They were entirely and totally unreasonable, and once they realized I knew what I was talking about they stopped talking to me."

Quentin said he is not concerned about his safety following the event, adding that someone did write a recent angry blog post about him. 

"I want people in Barrington not to think 'Oh, Texas is at it again,'" Quentin wrote. "Almost everyone I know are absolutely against Spencer and everything he stands for. Doesn't matter where you're from, every American hates Nazis."

Quentin's protest was not entirely surprising to his family here in Barrington. Quentin's mother, Tracy, said she was very proud of her son.

"We were really proud of his bravery, getting into that room that might be full of dangerous white supremacists," she wrote, adding "Also really afraid that he might face violence or repercussions because he was protesting so actively.

"He hasn't ever been one to ignore racism so we weren't surprised. He was thrilled when Obama was elected and is very passionate about making the world better."