Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Politics prompted her assault, Augsburg student says

An Augsburg freshman says four women called her racist and punched her on election night after seeing her McCain-Palin button.
By PAUL WALSH, Star Tribune

An Augsburg College student and Sarah Palin supporter from Alaska was beaten on election night while walking to her dorm and was called a racist by a group of four young women because she had on a McCain/Palin presidential campaign button, authorities and the victim said.

Annie Grossmann, a freshman on the Minneapolis college’s hockey team, suffered blurred vision and is thought to have had a concussion from a punch in the eye, but declined medical attention, she said.

Through her mother, Grossmann, 18, of Delta Junction, reported the assault to campus security the next morning, and Minneapolis police were notified that afternoon. No arrests have been made.

Grossmann said she was in a dorm lobby with a handful of fellow Republicans watching election returns with “a bunch of Democrats around next to me, cheering [Barack] Obama on and rubbing it in our faces.”

Once it was obvious that Obama was going to win, Grossmann said, she left the building alone shortly after 9:30 p.m. and headed to her room.

Under a skyway connecting the two buildings, four women “bigger than I am” came up to her, she said.

“One approached me and got in my face and called me racist because I had the pin on. That really ticked me off, but I kind of left it alone because she was so much bigger than I am,” said Grossmann. She is 5 feet 2 and weighs 120 pounds, and played boys high school hockey in Alaska. “The girls in the background were just a little bigger than me. They were mocking me from the sidelines.

“I didn’t say anything. … This one [bigger] girl grabbed me by the shoulders and was holding me. After about five minutes, I just wanted to get out of there.”

Grossmann, who is white, said she told the women, who were black, “You guys don’t even know me. There’s no reason to think I’m racist.”

At that point, she said, she pushed the bigger one in the group, and “she punched me, and the back of my head hit a brick wall.”

“‘Are you serious?”’ she recalled saying to the women. After cursing at Grossmann, the women left, and “I held my eye and went to my room.”

The team trainer, who checked her out the next day, said she probably had a concussion and barred her from practice for two days. She said she’s also been required by the school to attend counseling and missed a day of classes.

As for her future at the college, she said, “I love Augsburg, and I love the team here. I have no plans on leaving.” However, she added, “there are a few things that can change here, conservative versus liberal.”

Augsburg spokesman Jeff Shelman said the school doubts that the women are students, citing a review of dorm building video surveillance that evening and the fact that the victim didn’t recognize any of them.

Grossmann’s parents, Bruce and Dawn, said that in the weeks leading up to the presidential election, Annie had trouble on campus because of her political leanings and for being a hunter.

Bruce Grossmann said a “PETA person” had to be removed from her dorm room because he was upset by a photo of her with a black bear she had shot. Also, he said, she attended an icebreaker on campus and was booed when she identified herself as a Republican.

“I don’t think she was prepared for the close-mindedness,” he said. “I told her she needs to take a lower profile [for the sake of] her academic and her sports careers.”

Dawn Grossmann, a Delta Junction City Council member and chairwoman of a state commission that oversees public service funding in Alaska, said some professors and fellow students gave her a hard time for backing the GOP ticket. Citing academic privacy restrictions, Shelman said he could not confirm the other incidents the Grossmanns mentioned.

Dawn Grossmann has met with Palin for government business purposes and sent her daughter Palin campaign T-shirts. Bruce Grossmann said that Annie has also met Palin, is “very proud of Sarah Palin” and considers her “a role model.”

Dawn Grossmann described Delta Junction as “small-town conservative” and “being in Minneapolis, that’s very much of a change” for her daughter.

“She was surprised by how politically active the campus was,” Annie’s mother said. “She got a lesson right off the bat.”

In October, a 20-year-old McCain campaign volunteer in Pennsylvania made up a story of being robbed and having the backwards letter “B” scratched on her face in a politically inspired attack.

Police and Augsburg University say they have no reason to suspect Grossmann was not assaulted.

McCain Supporter Claims She Suffered Racial Taunts in Class

UPPER MARLBORO, Md. (NEWS8) - A Prince George’s Community College student says she was driven from class because of her political beliefs.

Gloria Alfonzo says she endured racial taunts and slurs because she supported John McCain’s presidential campaign.

Her problems, she said, began with an assignment to write about the merits of Barack Obama. When she announced she differed with Obama, Alfonzo says her African-American classmates subjected her to an onslaught of racial hatred.

“I was frightened,” she recalled. “It was horrible; it was extremely horrible. I was a little scared.”

Alfonzo said all of her classmates — except for herself and one other — were black, as was the instructor, Ayanna Watson. She says the teacher demanded to know whether she is a Republican.

Alfonzo maintains her answer drove her fellow students into a racially-charged rage.

“They got up from their chairs they started pointing at me and, um, saying, ‘You are a daughter of a,’ you know, ‘[expletive deleted]‘ and ‘[expletive deleted] white girl,’” she said.

Chris Monroe was in the same class.

“I have never seen so much hate for one person,” he recalled.

Monroe agrees with Alfonzo that the teacher never came to her defense. He found the vicious taunts deeply troubling.

He recalled some of the things he remembers them saying: “[Expletive deleted} white whore,' all that. 'Traitor [expletive deleted], all kinds of stuff.”

“I don’t think the teacher was even paying much attention,” Monroe said. “She wasn’t acknowledging it.”

ABC 7/NewsChannel 8 reporter Stephen Tschida stopped by the teacher’s home. There was no answer at the door, but her politics were proudly displayed: a large Obama sign on her front door.

After the incident, Alfonzo went to her college adviser, who agreed she should withdraw.

“I wanted to withdraw because it wasn’t the educational environment that I wanted to be in,” she said.

Alfonzo wants her tuition back and the school to fight racial hatred. Meanwhile, she put her dream of college on hold since Prince George’s Community College is the only school she could afford.

A Prince George’s Community College representative says an investigation into the incident is underway. She said if the teacher fostered or condoned the racist attacks, it is in clear violation of school policy.