by WorldTribune Staff, January 22, 2017
To all delicate snowflakes on public college campuses who need a safe space or a pony to pet to contemplate the reality known now as President Donald Trump, an Iowa lawmaker has a message:
“Suck it up, buttercup.”
Republican state Rep. Bobby Kaufmann says he will introduce a “suck it up, buttercup” bill in the Iowa State Legislature in a bid to fight back against campus coddling.
The bill would hit taxpayer-funded state universities with a budget cut for double the amount they spend on such election-related activities. Kaufmann emphasized that existing therapy and mental health services are not being targeted.
“I saw schools with rising, skyrocketing tuition costs where they are also finding money and expenditures for things such as cry rooms. I heard reports of rooms where you can play with Play-Doh, where you can color on books and talk about your feelings, and I was hearing reports of some schools that were bringing in ponies to be able get students through the election,” he said in an interview with “Fox & Friends”.
Kaufmann also set up a website where supporters can “Adopt a Trump protester” and get a “suck it up, buttercup” hat for $17.76.
After much ridicule on social media, the University of Michigan law school canceled a “Post-Election Self-Care with Food and Play” event that offered students the chance to work out their Trump anxiety with “stress-busting self-care activities” including coloring, blowing bubbles, sculpting with Play-Doh and “positive card making.”
Kaufmann said such events are a waste of money, and can actually hurt students as it doesn’t prepare them for the real world.
“And in life, when your car breaks down, your kids get sick or you have to take a second job to pay your mortgage, you don’t get to go to a cry zone, you don’t get to pet a pony, you have to deal with it,” he said.
At least one state university has pushed back against Kaufmann’s bill, saying it’s important for students to be able to express themselves about election results.
“I think universities are the perfect place to have these types of conversations,” Scott Ketelsen, director of university relations at the University of Northern Iowa, told the Des Moines Register. “It’s where people learn. It’s where they share ideas. I don’t consider it coddling.”
The bill also establishes new criminal penalties for protesters who shut down highways. Kaufmann cited an anti-Trump protest that shut down a highway in Iowa City.
“I encourage protest, I encourage dissent. But you don’t have a constitutional right to block the constitutional rights of others,” he told “Fox & Friends.”
Iowa state universities may be hit with ‘Suck it up buttercup’ bill added by World Tribune on
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