UI student accused of ‘trying to assault’ lawmaker as she was escorted out of DEI hearing

DES MOINES — A University of Iowa doctoral candidate was escorted out of a higher education subcommittee meeting Monday following a contentious back-and-forth over a DEI-related bill, compelling the woman to take a swipe at Rep. Steve Holt as she left.

“I don't know what is going on, but we have to have civil discourse. It's a subcommittee,” Rep. Skyler Wheeler, R-Hull, said. “Name calling, attacking, trying to assault a legislator is not constructive. And if your goal is to try and end these bills, I want to give you some friendly advice — I wouldn't act that way. Because other legislators are going to see that and go, maybe I need to vote for this thing if they're going to act this way.”

The proposal in question is House Study Bill 542, which would prohibit across Iowa’s public universities any general education or core curriculum courses or content related to diversity, equity and inclusion and critical race theory.

University of Iowa graduate student Abigail Escatel was third to speak on the measure, calling the proposal “willful ignorance.”

“I'm here today to address the white male fragility that sits in this room that feels so threatened by the idea that there are Black and Brown intellectuals that know more about the United States and this world and its legacies of colonialism, and the very grotesque ways that you invoke a willful ignorance,” Escatel said, accusing the lawmakers of failing to recognize “the very complex racial history that was built on the backs of Black folks, that was taken when Indigenous people were unsettled from this land.”

Escatel — who, like other speakers, had two minutes to talk — said she wanted to take up the rest of her time and the public comment period to discuss the value of DEI courses and content, including how it addresses “social injustice and inequality through a critical lens.”

Arguing critical thinking skills are underdeveloped in college students, Escatel criticized American K-12 education.

“The core curriculum is white supremacy,” she said. “It does teach little Black and Brown children to hate themselves.”

As Escatel spoke, Rep. Holt, R-Denison, interrupted her to say her time was up.

Because she continued speaking for another 15 seconds, Holt had the Capitol police come in and escort her out. As she was being led from the room, Escatel appeared to move her hand across the table, swiping his cellphone off the table and hitting Holt in the arm.

“Let me repeat this one more time, two minutes,” Holt said. “At the end of two minutes, you're done.”

Other speakers who shared thoughts on the bill during the 4:30 p.m. House Higher Education subcommittee meeting included Jillian Carlson, with the Board of Regents, and Keenan Crow, with One Iowa.

Carlson said the regents are “undecided” on the bill, while also noting they recently adopted a policy banning professors from including “controversial subjects in courses unless it is relevant to the course subject.”

“When it is relevant to the course subject that they are teaching, they need to make sure to do it in a way that does not indoctrinate students one side or the other,” Carlson said.

Crow called it “honestly alarming to hear that the regents are discouraging controversial topics from being taught.”

“We are also prohibiting mainstream criminological and psychological concepts like implicit bias, which, regardless of your feelings about that topic, is a topic that any student wanting to go into several broad fields should know about,” he said.

Jeff Anderson, on behalf of the Iowa Conference of the United Methodist Church, also spoke against the bill — which he said ignores the reality that “racism, sexism and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender” exist in our country.

“As United Methodists, we want students to have big brains, not small minds, and we don't think students are that fragile,” Anderson said. “We believe exposing students to challenging concepts and ideas develops critical thinking that results in real learning not, as some will contend, indoctrination.”

Wheeler, in his comments, praised Anderson — despite philosophically disagreeing with him.

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“How Jeff approached this is exactly how it should be approached, because I can actually take notes and say, here are a couple things that he said that I'll think about,” Wheeler said. “But if you come in screaming and name calling, you're going to get nowhere.”

Rep. Ross Wilburn, D-Ames, addressed both the bill and the incident.

“There shouldn’t have been an assault,” Wilburn said, but noted the bill’s name — the “Stop Woke Act” doesn’t help. “You are the chair, and you conduct these as you see fit and I know that you want to have a respectful environment. In my opinion, in the end, while the person did go over the time and after you did request law enforcement … the individual did sit down, that might have been an opportunity to let it go.”

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He refused to sign off on the bill, but Holt did sign off on it — moving it ahead into the full Higher Education Committee for consideration.

“Diversity, equity, inclusion programs I think in reality are the opposite of what their name implies,” Holt said. “For those who actually want to be colorblind and are tired of being shamed, critical race theory concepts taken together with DEI turn, I think, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on his head — teaching our young people to judge not based on character, but instead on skin color and immutable characteristics that have nothing to do with character.

“These concepts teach young people to judge through the prism of race, creating the opportunity to see a racist behind every tree.”

About the incident with Escatel, Holt said, “Sitting here listening to the about-to-be PhD, I thought there were some incredibly racist comments that were made there.

“I don't think she even realizes how racist she was being. But in order for constructive dialogue to take place in the subcommittee, there has to be decorum and there has to be rules that are followed.”

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com