Students continue to protest at campuses across the country, despite the risk of arrest. Some schools now threaten demonstrators with disciplinary action, while others promise the opposite.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators continue to turn out at schools across the country despite the risk of detention and suspension, with nearly 300 more protesters were arrested over the weekend.
On Sunday, pro-Palestinian protesters and pro-Israeli protesters clashed at the University of California, Los Angeles, leading to what university leaders described as „physical altercations“ and prompting them to increase security measures on campus.
Twelve protesters — including nine students — were arrested at the University of Mary Washington after refusing to vacate an encampment on its Fredericksburg, Va., campus. University President Troy Paino said in a statement that health and safety concerns had emerged on Saturday after protestors invited the off-campus public to join the encampment.
Elsewhere in the state, an unknown number of protesters were arrested at Virginia Tech University in the early hours of Monday morning, according to the . NPR has reached out to the university for more information.
The school warned of „heavy police activity around the Graduate Life Center“ in a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter) starting just after 10 p.m. ET, and announced around 3:30 a.m. that the incident „had stabilized.“ Social media footage shows protesters chanting at police as they lead people into multiple white vans.
Protests at George Washington University in D.C. are stretching into their fifth day on Monday — the last day of class for the semester — after a tense weekend, culminating in a clash between protesters and police.
Students first set up an encampment on University Yard on Thursday and later launched a second one on nearby H Street after the school put up barricades to restrict access.
Shortly before midnight on Sunday, protesters knocked down the barricades — piling them in a stack in the middle of the lawn — and flooded the lawn, with people remaining there overnight in some 85 tents, the GW Hatchet reports.
GW officials said in a statement early Monday that a group of „approximately 200 protesters from across [D.C., Maryland and Virginia], including professional organizers, activists, and university students, have joined the unauthorized encampment on our campus.“
„This is an egregious violation of community trust and goes far beyond the boundaries of free expression and the right to protest,“ they added. „The university will use every avenue available to ensure those involved are held accountable for their actions.“ Schools are alternately threatening and disavowing disciplinary action
One question on the minds of many is what, if any, disciplinary action student protesters might face from their schools, especially with finals and graduation fast approaching.
