Online petition calls for removal of Slippery Rock mayor
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.” petition get as many signatures necessary to convince someone else in the borough to run for mayor against Longo.
