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Philadelphia Man Accused of ‘An Act of Pure Evil’ Charged With Murder in Fatal Darby Fire

A 30-year-old Philadelphia man who allegedly set a fire at a Darby Township house that killed his ex-girlfriend’s disabled sister is being held without bail on murder charges.

“The horrific fire that occurred in Darby Township on Sunday morning was an act of pure evil. A young woman afflicted by cerebral palsy, who we understand had been lovingly cared for by her mother and her sister, lost her life in one of the most agonizing manners imaginable. A life has been lost, and a family home has been destroyed. We grieve for her and her family, and we pledge to use every tool available to us to ensure that the suspect, in this case, is brought to justice,” said District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer.

Aaron C. Clark faces first, second, and third-degree murder charges; arson; aggravated assault; reckless endangerment, and other counts in the fire that occurred around midnight on Dec. 4 and destroyed a house on the 600 block of Sharon Avenue. Police charged him in a separate complaint with harassment, terroristic threats, and resisting arrest.

Delaware County Medical Examiner Dr. Bennett Preston said Olivia Drasher, 20, died of smoke inhalation and burns. While other family members and Drasher’s nurse, who suffered burns, were able to escape the inferno Drasher, who needed a wheelchair, died in her first-floor bedroom. The fire was set on the front porch just outside her window.

Olivia Drasher

Drasher’s older sister, Amira Rogers, went to the police on Dec. 3 to report Clark was sending her threatening text messages and saying that he would post indecent pictures of her on social media sites. Because both Rogers and Clark worked for the Postal Service, she also filed a complaint with postal inspectors.

Later that day, while in custody, Rogers and her family told police that Clark was still sending them threatening messages, according to the affidavit of probable cause.

Police tried to search Rogers, who struggled and spat on them. After he was subdued, they found an Apple watch hidden in his rectum.

The Drasher family created a GoFundMe account to help with expenses that Rogers set up.

Rogers wrote that the fire was set by “an evil psychopath and my little sister, Olivia Drasher, who is disabled and has cerebral palsy, was killed. She was only 20 years old. Her nurse, Ms. Sharon, was burned and inhaled smoke while trying to save Oliva. My mother was able to save Raquelle Drasher, Olivia’s twin sister. But my baby sister, Olivia, could not make it out. My family has lost everything. This man was harassing me where I work at the post office because I did not want to be with him anymore.”

“…he set our house on fire while my family was in their beds. We are working with the police to get justice, but we are now homeless. Due to Olivia’s medical condition, we were not able to obtain life insurance for her yet. But we never thought we would need it anytime soon because she was only 20 years old. My mother, Drena Drasher, is a veteran of the U.S. Army and a Philadelphia Police Officer in the 1st District. She worked so hard to provide for her family and build her dream house, all for it to be burned away by a demonic human.

“My family and I are devastated by the loss of our Olivia, and we need all your thoughts and prayers. The money for this GoFundMe will be used to pay for Olivia’s funeral services and burial and also to help us find a new home. We don’t have anything but the clothes on our backs.”

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U Penn Ranks Near Bottom in Campus Free Speech Survey

The University of Pennsylvania is America’s oldest university. It was founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1740.

But Franklin, an outspoken writer, printer, and one of the men who fomented the American Revolution, might have been disappointed to learn Penn is in the bottom five universities in the country for free speech. In fact, it came in second to last, ahead of its fellow Ivy League competitor Columbia.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), in partnership with College Pulse, released its third annual College Free Speech Rankings on Wednesday. Ranking the speech climates of 203 of America’s largest and most prestigious campuses, FIRE gave the University of Chicago top marks for the best campus climate for free speech.

“That so many students are self-silencing and silencing each other is an indictment of campus culture,” said FIRE Senior Research Fellow Sean Stevens. “How can students develop their distinct voices and ideas in college if they’re too afraid to engage with each other?”

A spokesman for Penn did not respond to a request for comment.

It was the largest survey on students’ free expression, with 45,000 students included, according to FIRE. It found many students are afraid to speak out on their campuses while others want to cancel the voices of those who do not share their points of view.

The top colleges for free speech behind the University of Chicago were Kansas State, Purdue, Mississippi State University, and Oklahoma State University. With Columbia and Penn at the bottom of the survey were Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Georgetown University, and Skidmore College.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Republican running for the U.S. Senate, holds degrees from Penn’s medical school and its business school, Wharton.

“Students and speakers at colleges and universities, like the University of Pennsylvania, deserve to have a platform to speak freely and have open and honest conversations. As Pennsylvania’s next senator, Dr. Oz will push back on cancel culture by protecting the First Amendment and defend individuals’ freedom to say what they see,” said Brittany Yanick, communications director for the Oz campaign.

A graduate of the Penn School of Veterinary Medicine said he was surprised by the results of the survey. He also asked DVJournal not to use his name for fear of repercussions.

Several other Penn alumni contacted by DVJ declined to comment.

Stevens told DVJournal that cancel culture and social media play a role in creating an anti-free-speech environment on campus. But students also fear what professors might think of them or that they might receive lower grades if their views do not jibe with a professor’s. Some 40 percent of students are uncomfortable disagreeing with a professor—in public or a written assignment, the survey found.

The FIRE survey began in 2020 with 55 colleges and universities. This year it surveyed 203 campuses in 49 states, with only North Dakota not included.

Stevens said the group hopes to continue each year and increase the data available to researchers.

Students were asked how comfortable they felt talking about their opinions, he said. And even some students at the more liberal end of the spectrum, who comprised the majority of those surveyed, were fearful.

While the goal is to let prospective students and parents take this indicator into account when selecting a college, FIRE also hopes to make university administrators more aware of this issue, Stevens said.

Some administrators contacted FIRE after previous reports to see what they could do to improve their scores, he said.

While the rankings rely heavily on student responses, each school’s speech code rating also factored into the scoring. Most schools without any policies that imperil free speech rose in the rankings, while those with restrictive speech codes fell, according to FIRE.

This year, FIRE also took into account which schools sanctioned faculty for their speech or disinvited guest speakers based on viewpoint since 2019, giving the institutions that did lower marks.

Self-censorship is pervasive across top-ranked and bottom-ranked schools alike; 63 percent of respondents worried about damaging their reputation because someone misunderstood something they said or did. Disturbingly, an equal percentage said that students shouting down a speaker to prevent them from speaking on campus was acceptable to some degree.

Other findings from the report include: Conservative students are most likely to feel they cannot express their opinions freely, with 42 percent reporting that they “often” feel uncomfortable speaking freely, compared to 13 percent of liberal students. Some 40 percent of students are uncomfortable disagreeing with a professor — in public or in a written assignment. And the three most difficult topics to discuss on campus are abortion, racial inequality, and COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

FIRE is a nonprofit organization based in Philadelphia that is dedicated to defending and sustaining the individual rights of all Americans to free speech and free thought.

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