[The author is a member of the Towson Action Group and was involved in the events described.]

At 11 AM Tuesday, students from the Towson Action Group (TAG) at Towson University in Baltimore kicked off a "day of peace" by dropping six banners from buildings and bridges around campus. The banners, which criticized the current bombing of Afghanistan and promoted a peaceful reaction to the recent terrorist attacks on the US, were only part of the events planned for the day by TAG. A memorial wall, drum circle, and chalking were all planned to give students at Towson an opportunity to voice their opinions about the war and speak for peace.

Within a half hour of the the banner drops, as students had taped up white paper on a wall to write messages of peace and remembrance on, university police arrived and requested that the materials be taken down. After presenting a copy of the Event and Conference Service department's guidelines for solicitation and distribution of materials to students, the officers asserted that any event taking place on campus must be approved by Event and Conference Services. One officer told the students that they could take down the materials themselves, or he would take it down himself. When students refused to remove the paper from the wall, the officer ripped it down and left it crumpled next to a trash can.

Officers had already been seen taking down several of the banners on the outskirts of campus at this point, and they soon moved from the memorial wall to attempting to dismantle the two banners still hanging from a pedestrian bridge overhead. Two tag members, in an effort to rescue the banners, asked the police if they could take them down and keep them. The officers allowed them to take the banners, though another officer could be seen clutching a balled up banner that had been hanging from a parking garage. He did not attempt to return it to the students.

After this several officers were engaged in dialogue by the students, who were curious as to why their activities were targeted and not those of other groups, such as the many groups that use banners to promote events on campus. One officer responded, "It's because what you guys are doing is controversial."

After the officers departed, an alternate plan took shape in the form of sidewalk chalk. The open area where the memorial wall and banners had been placed was soon being covered in chalked messages of peace. Though an officer during the earlier confrontation had explained that chalking was permissible as long as it was on horizontal, uncovered surfaces, several officers arrived on the scene within minutes and attempted to stop the chalking.

After a few tense confrontations between students and the police, the officers backed down when the school's policy on chalking was read out loud to them from a student policy book. A compromise was also worked out regarding the one "obscene" word that had been chalked, which the TAG members agreed to cross out so that they would not be violating the policy.

The chalking continued for a few hours, taking on a lively tone as a student began playing a drum in the middle of the area. Messages written ranged from generic anti-war statements, to direct criticisms of US foreign policy, as well as messages of hope for victims of violence around the world. Some students passing by the area stopped to read the messages, and several engaged the chalkers in discussion about the issues. Others could be seen shaking their heads or making disgusted faces as they strolled by. One tag member was approached by a group of students who threatened him with assault, instructing him to watch his back because they "know what he looks like."

According to TAG members, students identified as members of a fraternity were seen later that night cleaning the chalk off the pavement. Less than a hundred feet away were the untouched remains of chalking done by fraternities and sororities for homecoming, which was left untouched by those doing the cleaning.