COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Students at two Maryland universities plan to screen Digital Playground's Pirates II: Stagnetti's Revenge in response to the cancellation of a midnight show originally scheduled to take place this weekend.
According to the Baltimore Sun, students at the University of Maryland, College Park have reserved space to screen the XXX blockbuster on campus Monday night. Another screening is tentatively planned for next week at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
The planned campus screening of Pirates II drew national attention after Sen. Andrew Harris bullied school administrators into canceling the event. The Republican state senator threatened to push a proposal denying funds to state schools that exhibit pornographic films outside of an academic curriculum.
"There probably isn't a space on campus that can hold the amount of students who would come out. This has spread like wildfire," said College Park junior Kenton Stalder, who is leading the student effort to screen the multiple AVN Award-winning feature.
Stalder has invited professors to moderate a pre-screening discussion on free speech issues.
"We're trying to be really careful with how we present it because it's such a contentious issue," Stalder said. "We want to have the faculty behind us and have the message shaped in a way the administration can embrace it instead of having it squashed."
Sen. Harris responded with more financial threats.
"If they want to press the issue with presenting pornography for fun and entertainment in a university facility, with explicit approval of the university, then they would have to deal with that in future budgets," he said.
Pirates and Pirates II have screened at campuses across the country, including the Unviersity of California-Davis, Carnegie-Mellon, and UCLA.
