An online petition created earlier this week by Slippery Rock University students to remove Slippery Rock Mayor Jondavid Longo had received upwards of 1,300 signatures by Friday afternoon.

The petition, launched by Slippery Rock University student Hayley Wells on July 4 on change.org, calls for the “immediate removal of the mayor.”

Within two days, the petition had 1,000 signatures. As of 7 p.m. Friday, 1,371 signatures were on the virtual petition.

It cites a lengthy Facebook post by fellow student Layla Joseph about an incident where the mayor and students engaged in a confrontation prior to the borough’s Independence Day parade last Saturday, where students wrote chalk messages to protest the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

The petition further alleges “online harassment towards peaceful protesters, exercising their right to freedom of speech” and “knowingly intermixing church and state in politics.”

Longo said Friday that the petitioners are not representing his actions correctly.

“They have totally misrepresented and over-exaggerated,” he said. “Nobody from their cohort has ever come to me for dialogue.”

Haley Wells, who has lived in Slippery Rock for five years, said she started the petition because Longo made social media posts about the protesters that she said felt were a neutralization of their right to free speech.

“We were standing there protesting (with signs later Saturday) and we found out he had tweeted that, it made me frustrated or angry in a way,” she said. “He had run to Twitter to say no one was listening to us. I feel like that pushed me to start the petition.”

On Sunday, Slippery Rock student Cassie Dietrich had posted pictures of her and others holding signs in downtown Slippery Rock. The signs included messages such as, “We will not be silenced” and “God sent me as karma.”

In her Twitter post Dietrich wrote, “WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED.”

Longo retweeted this message too, saying, “Silenced? Nobody is listening.”

The day before another social media interaction occurred.

In a social media post Saturday, Dietrich took to Twitter, posting a picture of one message that had been written in sidewalk chalk.

“Hey @JondavidRLongo RESPECT WOMEN,” Dietrich said.

Longo retweeted her message, adding his own words.

“Hey. Respect the business owners whose storefronts you sullied with vulgar graffiti and respect the Veterans’ Memorial in town you defiled,” he said.

Longo said during a Tuesday council meeting that he was offended by the placing of upside-down American flags on a veterans memorial site in the borough, and that the event had been planned to be inviting to families and children.

The chalk messages were removed before the borough’s festivities began. The messages included phrases such as, “My Body My Choice,” “Pray for Women,” “Liberty and Justice for All,” “Protect Trans-Men,” “Pro Roe,” “Vote,” “We Won’t Go Back,” “What About My Heartbeat” and “Stars, Stripes, and Women’s Rights.”

Dietrich, one of the Saturday demonstrators, said she wanted to help circulate the petition not only because of Longo’s confrontation of the protesters, but because of the use of his public figure social media page to respond to their posts about the incident.

“It should be concern for someone in a position of power to use that power to negate other people’s viewpoints,” said Dietrich, who has lived in Slippery Rock for the past two years. “Especially because it was from his mayoral account, it had a lot of weight.”

Wells said she would like to see the petition get as many signatures necessary to convince someone else in the borough to run for mayor against Longo.

“My main goal was to get higher than the number of votes he got last time to see if someone might be able to get more votes,” Wells said. “I pulled every name who is from Slippery Rock myself. There is a good majority of people from Slippery Rock.”

Conversely, Longo said most of the signers of the petition do not live in Slippery Rock. Only signers who agree for their name to be displayed are up for public viewing on the website.

“The overwhelming majority of the signatures are from people who are not from Slippery Rock and don’t pay taxes here,” he said.

Names of those who sign the petition only appear on the website if the signer checks a box saying, “display my name and comment on this petition.”