Last month, Cape Fear Community College personnel and New Hanover County Sheriff's deputies escorted CFCC alumnus and Army veteran Quentin Proulx out of a Board of Trustees meeting.
Proulx, who graduated from the college in 2022, had twice requested in writing to speak to the board about CFCC administrators’ order earlier this year to change the theater students’ set design for Euripides’ play, Bacchae. According to the college’s bylaws, there is a mechanism to speak to the trustees, but officials claim Proulx's topic wasn’t on their agenda.
Nonetheless, when CFCC President Jim Morton opened the floor for questions in September, Proulx thought he had an opening to speak — but after making comments, CFCC Chair Lanny Wilson gaveled him and deployed sheriff’s deputies to remove him.
Back in April, Proulx began questioning CFCC’s upper administration after theater students were forced to remove the words “No Kings” from the Bacchae set, which featured a host of protest slogans. At the time, CFCC students told WHQR the directive came from President Morton; the college denied that, saying the decision was made at the “division level,” but didn’t respond to follow-ups.
Originally, the directive was to remove all the slogans, but after staff and students advocated preserving most of the set, the decision was narrowed to removing “No Kings.” This decision came down a couple of hours before their first performance.
Proulx, an actor and UNCW theater major graduating in 2024, took offense to the incident. He said it violated students’ First Amendment rights and wanted Morton to apologize; however, the president and his administration have not responded to the CFCC alum.
“I think for veterans who raise their right hand to defend the Constitution, it's not a light thing we do. I've lost friends that are buried under our flag. The First Amendment to me is not this flippant thing that we have to deal with. It is the foundation of our democracy, man,” Proulx said.
Proulx said he followed policy in trying to get a public audience. CFCC’s bylaws, Article 6, Section 8, state that “any individual or organized group who desires to appear before the Board shall state in writing the purpose of such appearance and the names of each person who is to appear as a spokesperson. The statement shall be filed with the Chairman at least ten (10) days in advance.”
Proulx had done this on several occasions, meeting the deadline of 10 days in advance; however, CFCC attorney Ken Gray of Ward and Smith, PA, had told Proulx via email that “on August 28 and September 4, I informed you there would not be an opportunity to speak since there was no agenda item allowing for public comment.”
In a September 14 email, Gray told Proulx that the issue with the set design of Bacchae,“ was addressed ad nauseam in the media back in the Spring.”
However, Tannis Nelson, a professional registered parliamentarian who has over 30 years in the field, wrote to WHQR that “Section 8 provides the instructions for addressing the board; [...] The Order of Business in Section 6 does not include a time for public comment; however, Section 5 allows for the Chair to add to the agenda.”
She added further, “If there are instructions addressed in the Bylaws on how to address the board, then the question becomes if a member of the public fulfills all the listed requirements, including providing a topic, why wouldn’t they be allowed to speak?”
When WHQR asked CFCC this question, they didn’t respond.
Things come to a head on September 24
Proulx went to the September 24 trustee meeting. He wore a suit and brought signs that read “No Kings.”
“The board noticed and were kind of whispering to each other, but they didn't stop it. Everything was fine, and we sat there for a while. You could see right on their faces already like this disdain,” he said.
Proulx also noticed that New Hanover County Sheriff’s deputies, who provided security for CFCC’s campus and board meetings, had his pictures on their phones. Proulx later requested the college's records and received two images of him that had been sent to Sergeant R. Redmond. The Sheriff’s Office wrote to Proulx that they had no records of this.
Once the meeting started, Proulx said he sat down, recited the Pledge of Allegiance, saw a presentation of employees who were retiring, and all the while, “The deputies stood extremely close to me. They were right behind me. We were in the back row.”
Proulx said the meeting was moving along, but then Morton presented to the board on issues in the nursing department, where top leaders and roughly half the staff resigned. Morton essentially accused the media of making up the story.
Proulx provided a recording of the incident.
“It’s the numbers, and this is all business. They drive those numbers. They pay those numbers. They put it to their clients to sell advertising, and they use those numbers to drive sales. That's what it's about. We call it clickbait. Try to drive sales, so that’s the story. Any questions?” Morton said on the recording.
That’s when Proulx shouted out, “What about students' First Amendment rights that you censored last semester?”
CFCC Trustee Chair Lanny Wilson gaveled him and said, “Sir, you’re not on our agenda.”
Proulx responded, “I tried getting on the agenda. Yeah, you guys wouldn't let me on the agenda.”
Wilson said, “If you continue to disrupt this meeting, you’re going to be asked to leave.”
Proulx continued, “He violated students’ First Amendment rights.”
Wilson then called for the Sheriff’s deputies — and Proulx said, “Let’s go,” to a friend who came with him.
As Proulx was being escorted out, he said, “President Morton, you’re awesome. We love you. We love the Board of Trustees, but you violated their First Amendment rights.”
Then, on the tape, Proulx is saying, “Don’t touch me,” to Executive Director of Safety and Auxiliary Services Shawn Breedlove.
Proulx said that the Sheriff's deputies didn’t touch him and that they were professional. WHQR asked the college if Breedlove physically interacted with Proulx, but they did not respond. Breedlove and the deputies went down in the elevator with Proulx and walked him to his car.
This isn’t the first time that sheriff’s deputies had to escort out audience members. During a July 2024 meeting, CFCC marine technology students and their supporters came out in droves to hear what Morton had to say about the nonrenewal of their long-time chair Jason Rogers and what was next for their program. One audience member, the spouse of a marine tech student, was escorted out because he wanted to sit in the meeting room.
About 15 CFCC students were barred from the room and had to watch the meeting from another room. Upper administration directed that the students not be allowed in.
As to why he took the opening to shout during the meeting, “During his [CFCC nursing] presentation, he made me mad. And how he made me mad was he started badmouthing WHQR and the media, and I went, ‘Okay, that's what tyrants do.”
After the meeting, on October 16, Gray sent an email to Proulx. Gray noted that Proulx had declined to send comments through him to the trustees, although Proulx had been sending messages to Morton and other staff for several months. He also thought that Proulx’s “outburst during the meeting was very disruptive, interfering with the orderly transaction of Board business and ultimately necessitated [his] removal from the meeting by law enforcement.”
Gray wrote further that they knew Proulx would do this, “Given that I unequivocally communicated appropriate conduct expectations to you prior to the meeting, we believe you attended the Board meeting with the specific intent to interrupt, disturb, or disrupt the meeting.”
WHQR asked the college if they thought Proulx was confused when Morton said, “Are there any questions?” after finishing his nursing presentation. They didn’t respond.
Gray also warned Proulx about future incidents, writing, “While the Board graciously did not pursue criminal charges against you after your disruptions on September 24, you should not expect the same grace going forward if you disrupt another Board meeting.”
He said if Proulx disrupts at another meeting that the matter will be “turned over to the District Attorney’s office” and that he is on notice that CFCC will “not tolerate any further disruption by [him] or anyone else [he] conspire[s] with.”
As for Proulx, he said, “It saddens me that President Morton and the Board of Trustees have actually threatened me with arrest because I stood up to defend young students and the First Amendment. They have threatened to throw me in jail, which just blows my mind.”
Proulx said he’ll continue advocating for the CFCC theater students.
“I would like President Morton to just acknowledge he made a mistake in judgment. He shouldn't have done it. I would like him to apologize to the department, to the chair, whatever works; it doesn't have to be in person. It can be in writing, whatever,” he said. “I would like the board to just acknowledge [it] so that hopefully we will never have that happen again at a college campus. That students' rights were trampled upon, and nobody cared. I'm deathly afraid of it getting swept under the carpet, and people just don't care.”
