A small degree of justice survives in higher education. Sally Jacobsen, the Northern Kentucky University professor who led a group of her students vandalizing a pro-life display, has apologized to pro-life students, paid for the cost of what was destroyed, and donated $1,000 to a local crisis-pregnancy center. In exchange, the charges of theft, criminal mischief, and criminal solicitation have been dropped.

“I did not realize I was interfering with Northern Right to Life’s freedom of speech and I deeply regret having done so,” says Jacobsen. Immediately after the vandalism occurred, Jacobsen seemed much less penitent, when she defended the fact that she invited her “students to express their freedom-of-speech rights to destroy the display if they wished to.”

I wonder if she actually grasps how perverted was her belief that her vandalism qualified as “freedom of speech,” or if she’s simply trying to avoid being charged. At least it looks like she will have some time to reflect on her actions. Professor Jacobsen will not be returning to NKU in the fall, as she has retired to Portland, Oregon.