California college president cracks down on protesting pro-Palestinian students: 'Immediate suspension'
The president of Pomona College declared students will face "immediate suspension" after a pro-Palestinian protest in which protesters harassed staff and used a racial slur.
After a pro-Palestinian protest erupted at a California college on Friday, the president cracked down, saying that the students would be "subject to immediate suspension."
President Gabrielle Starr of Pomona College in Claremont, California, addressed the campus community after she said a group of protesters refused to identify themselves to Campus Safety and Student Affairs staff and verbally harassed staff, including using an anti-black racial slur when speaking to an administrator.
"Any participants in today’s events on the SCC lawn or in Alexander Hall, who turn out to be Pomona students, are subject to immediate suspension," Starr wrote in a letter to students on Friday evening.
"Students from the other Claremont Colleges will be banned from Pomona’s campus and subject to discipline on their own campuses. All individual participants not part of The Claremont Colleges community are hereby banned from campus immediately," Starr said.
Community members who protest on campus in compliance with the institution's demonstration policy will remain unaffected, the president noted.
A heavy police response arrived at the college on Friday in connection with the protest, according to the Claremont Courier. At least 18 people were reportedly arrested.
Starr said that the ongoing protests have occupied a portion of the campus center for the past week, but the campus refrained from taking immediate action because the students were expressing their right to protest.
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"For the past week, masked individuals who are part of a protest have occupied a portion of the Smith Campus Center (SCC) lawn. This occupation was against our policies, but as we have expressed in the past, we work with students who are exercising their right to protest unless that protest impedes on the rights of others," Starr wrote.
On Friday morning, protesters in the demonstration on the SCC lawn voluntarily removed the tents they had been sleeping in, the president explained. In preparation for events scheduled for Sunday, and in accordance with the college's policy, campus staff began removing the signs and other equipment left behind and told the students present that they could move the equipment, or it would be stored for pickup.
The president said that the protesters then verbally harassed campus staff and used racial slurs while addressing a campus administrator.
"This is unacceptable," Starr said. "These actions are actively destructive of the values that underpin our community."
Staff and administrators offered to help move the materials to the Walker Wall.
The students were also repeatedly instructed to stop their harassment and provide identification.
Starr said that the protesters continued to harass staff, while holding signs, for more than two hours, and still refused to identify themselves.
"There is absolutely no excuse for this harassment, and there is no excuse for refusal to identify yourself on our campus," she wrote.
She said protesters then, under false pretenses, entered Alexander Hall, and occupied her office.
