The Turning Point USA (TPUSA) chapter at Iowa State University used sidewalk chalk to announce a speaker event on Jan. 29 covering how students shape the pro-life movement. An unknown student responded by sidewalk chalking ‘f— them kids’ below the TPUSA announcement.

In addition to defacement, unknown students poured water on the TPUSA chalk to erase the message. 

“We’ve had to go back and redo it three times,” Isaiah Alexander, a junior studying agricultural studies and vice president of TPUSA at ISU, said. “In my opinion, if you truly believe you’re doing the right thing, you’re putting forward a message that’s good for people, good for America, you won’t feel the need to silence the other side.”

“Overwriting, erasing, defacing or altering existing chalking is prohibited by anyone other than the person or organization who did the chalking, except … university facility and grounds personnel,” according to university policy.

Alexander explained that he assembled a team of eight TPUSA members to sidewalk chalk across campus. Although the university is responsible for washing away chalk, if TPUSA notices their chalk left for extended periods of time, they will personally wash it away. 

TPUSA started advertising events to raise awareness and involvement for the club. 

“We want to have difficult conversations with people we disagree with, with love, charity and grace,” Alexander said. “So we started talking, let’s get this in front of everybody. I invite anybody to come to Turning Point.”