Kurt Johnson, who has an order of no trespass issued against him by North Central College, has spent the last several days circulating the boundaries of the campus and handing flyers to students and other passersby.
Johnson, who was convicted of murder in 1993 and has faced charges of stalking, applied to NCC’s Master of Leadership Studies program in 2017. After being denied entry, he has been holding solo protests against the College.
On Jan. 22, Dean of Students Kevin McCarthy responded to comments Johnson made to Chronicle reporters on Jan. 18.
Johnson said he sent his transcripts to NCC’s Graduate Admissions office in the fall of 2017. He said he was told he would need to wait until January 2018, when a committee would review his application and decide whether to accept him for admission.
“Well, I have gotten bad information from them (Graduate Admission),” Johnson said. “Someone gave me those green add (class) forms and told me, ‘go to the class and have the professor sign the form and once you’re admitted you can add the class even though the semester started.’ So I did that.”
Johnson said he believed he would be accepted to the College, so he followed the directions he was given. He claims he attended class with the permission of an unnamed professor until he received a letter from McCarthy.
The letter, posted to Johnson’s Twitter account, is featured on one of the many flyers he has been handing out to students. While McCarthy said that the letter on the flyer seems to be the letter Johnson received in September 2017 that details his order of no trespass, “the College disputes important aspects of Mr. Johnson’s version of events.”
However, McCarthy could not say more on this because “the College does not publicly discuss details of an individual’s enrollment application.”
The letter explained that Johnson could not be on any property owned or leased by the College; if he were to trespass, the Naperville Police Department would be contacted.
Johnson remains adamant that he did nothing wrong.
“I have the emails in my possession,” he said. “They are trying to make me look like a crazy guy.”
According to McCarthy, “the College has invited Mr. Johnson to submit a formal complaint, which he has yet to submit.”
Despite this, Johnson has continued his protest on campus, which includes handing out flyers with screenshots of his tweets and telling his story to community members.
Though the college has a no trespass order against Johnson, he cannot be arrested for being on the sidewalks surrounding the campus. A 2018 Naperville Park District Ordinance explains that sidewalks are considered to be “district property,” which they define as “all of the property, real and personal, of every kind and description located within the jurisdiction of, or owned, administrated, leased or licensed by, or otherwise in the possession or under the control of the District including without limitation every…street, sidewalk…” and so on.
Thus, the school does not own the sidewalks and cannot enforce the “no trespassing” order, even though Johnson has been interacting with students and handing out flyers.
Kurt Johnson, right, hands out flyers near NCC’s campus. Staff photo
This is protected under Section 2.29 “Selling or Distributing Printed or Written Material,” where the Naperville Park District explains that, under these circumstances, he is within his rights so long as he does not “obstruct or impede pedestrians or vehicles…” among other things.
Beyond handing out flyers, Johnson is also working on his website and tweeting about the issue.
“I wasn’t going to post anything about North Central until this whole situation came up,” said Johnson. “I’ve been accused of scaring students at one in the morning and all that, so I felt like I had to respond.”
“The College continues to closely monitor this situation in coordination with the Naperville Police Department,” said McCarthy.
Cheyanne Daniels and Alexis Heinitz lead reporters, contributing reporting by Greg Williams
