Kyle Kashuv, Parkland Survivor Who Met With Trump, Has Harvard Acceptance Rescinded

Kyle Kashuv is a teenager who is among the survivors of the early 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida. Unlike several of his classmates, who became vocal advocates for gun control in the months afterward, Kashuv emerged as an advocate for gun rights. He also worked for a time as high school outreach director for the conservative organization Turning Point USA.

Per The Inquisitr, racist text messages attributed to Kashuv from 2016 surfaced in May, shortly after Kashuv announced that he was stepping down from Turning Point. The 18-year-old Kashuv said at the time that he had made the comments when he was only 16-years-old.

“We were 16-year-olds making idiotic comments, using callous and inflamatory [sic] language in an effort to be as extreme and shocking as possible,” Kashuv wrote at the time. “I’m embarrassed by it, but I want to be clear that the comments I made are not indicative of who I am and who I’ve become in the years since.”

He also vowed to “do better.”

Now, per his Twitter account, Kashuv has announced that Harvard University has rescinded his acceptance, three months after accepting him into the class of 2023.

Kashuv, in a series of tweets, went on to explain that when the initial stories broke about the text messages, he received a letter from Harvard informing him that the university reserved the right to withdraw an offer of admission in the event that the student in question had engaged in “behavior that brings into question your honesty, maturity or moral character.” The university also requested a written explanation within 72 hours.

Revoke his admission @Harvard. https://t.co/K51pOVFECN

— katieorenstein (@katieorenst) June 12, 2019

The student shared the letters he wrote to Harvard, in which he expressed regret for the texts and vowed to participate in inclusion efforts when he arrives on campus. But he then received a letter stating that Harvard has rescinded his admission. Kashuv later wrote a letter asking for a face-to-face meeting to “work towards any possible path of reconciliation,” but Harvard declined the request.

“Throughout its history, Harvard’s faculty has included slave owners, segregationists, bigots and antisemites,” Kashuv tweeted. “If Harvard is suggesting that growth isn’t possible and that our past defines our future, then Harvard is an inherently racist institution.”

Kashuv met with President Trump in the White House in March of 2018, The Sun-Sentinel reported at the time. First lady Melania Trump tweeted about the meeting afterward, praising Kashuv’s “message of unity.”