Rick Santorum, a former Republican presidential candidate and former Pennsylvania U.S. Senator, will be speaking at California State University-Los Angeles on April 12. His speech is already gathering criticism, especially from one CSU-LA administrator who used an alias to threaten that “leftist bigots” will protest his speech:
Santorum is visiting campus April 12 at the invitation of the school’s Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) group, and when one YAF member posted to a university Facebook group announcing the event, a user going by the name of “Emma Zee” grew irate, vowing to protest the speech while declaring that she and other opponents “are not engaging in discussion with him.”
According to The New Guard, Emma Zee’s profile listed her occupation as “Professor,” a description that Zee confirmed when asked by CSULA YAF board member Kevin Amador.
An Instagram account also bearing the name “Emma Zee” provides further detail, disclosing that her real name is Marylu Castillo, an Academic Advisor and Admissions Coordinator for the Honor College.
Castillo, who has a Master’s in Counseling, is a sponsor of several student organizations on campus, according to CSULA, though she joined the Facebook group “CSULA Book Exchange,” a group for students to swap textbooks, using the pseudonymous account.
Photo by Gage Skidmore