In her speech, Deming mentioned the bombing of children's hospitals as among the things she had seen in a visit to North Vietnam; however, the main cause of the uproar occurred when she called for civil disobedience through refusal to pay taxes and avoidance of the draft.
The high school publicly denounced the inappropriate nature of Deming's radical speech. Deming was accused of attempting to "brainwash" the students and of not having received approval of her speech topic beforehand. According to The Amherst Student, Superintendent of Schools Ronald Fitzgerald called Deming's speech "very distorted (I am being kind in using this term)" and her suggestions "calculated to mock the American system of government." He even accused her of "misusing the freedom of speech guaranteed by that very government." However, Fitzgerald did not even attend the assembly and based his complaints on reports from angry parents.
When the students from the College heard about this unfair dismissal of Deming's shocking yet well-informed speech, anger on campus quickly spread. Marx stepped in to defend Deming in a letter to the local newspaper The Amherst Record. He objected to the "tone of outrage and intolerance" to a controversial point of view, and demanded that Fitzgerald write a public apology to Deming. The high school officials defended themselves by insisting that they supported freedom of speech, but that they believed that both sides of such a contentious topic should be presented, especially in this particular case where the audience was a group of young, easily influenced students. Finally, the high school admitted that this controversial issue and town uproar was "wonderful for the largely apathetic student body," which had been awakened. During this tumultuous time, the College showed its concern for the town's well-being.