Students and community members alike are outraged after a woman who recently recorded herself making racist comments has been allowed to remain enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The school said it has seen the disturbing footage; however, her hate speech is protected.

“Hate in all its forms has no place on our campus. We must reject racism and discrimination,” Dr. LaVar J. Charleston, the deputy vice-chancellor, vice provost, and chief diversity officer of the Wisconsin university, said Tuesday (May 2) in a statement shared by the school’s official Twitter account. Charleston then changed his tune. “At the same time, as a public institution, we are bound by the First Amendment, which protects a person’s right to say very offensive and hateful things. Some have called for the speaker of these racist words to be expelled. Some have called for worse. Simply stated, the law does not allow the university to take punitive action for words like these spoken in private spaces, even when those words are racist and hateful,” he wrote.

In the video, a white student identified as Audrey Godlewski said, “F**k you. I’m gonna kill myself one day, and I hope everyone f**king misses me, ‘cause I’m gonna go back and haunt every f**king little n**ger who f**king did me wrong.” The University of Wisconsin student continued, “I literally hate all [of] them. I’m gonna make them pick f**king cotton in the fields all day long till they f**king die of f**king thirst, and they’re literally — their bodies are gonna dry out because of how much cotton they’re picking for me.” Another woman in the room begins to laugh, which causes Godlewski to be disrupted from her rant as she joins in laughing hysterically.

Social media users, school staff, and students have called for her expulsion since the video circulated online. With no actions taken, many at the University of Wisconsin have taken matters into their own hands. In addition to a Change.org petition to have her removed from campus, yesterday (May 3), over 200 people gathered outside the chancellor’s office to protest Godlewski’s racist remarks. According to a tweet from The BLK PWR Coalition, another protest is scheduled for today (May 4) near the school’s library.

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