Three Barnard College students, including US lawmaker Ilhan Omar’s daughter Isra Hirsi, have been suspended for participation in an ongoing Gaza solidarity protest encampment at Columbia University in New York City.
The suspension of the three students came as university administrators called on the New York Police Department (NYPD) to dismantle the tents that had been set up earlier on Wednesday.
Several students told MEE that heavily armed police dressed in riot gear entered the university lawns on Thursday to tear down the 50-plus tents. By late Thursday afternoon, the camps were gone and dozens of students had been arrested.
The developments on Thursday followed the revelations that three students - Isra Hirsi, 21, along with Maryam Iqbal, 18, and Soph Dinu, 21 - had received letters earlier in the day informing them they had been suspended, effective immediately, due to refusing to pay heed to calls to end their protest.
Oh look, consequences for actions. I can’t blame the school for suspending them. I can’t blame the kids for protesting. Sometimes when you protest, you know you’re going to be arrested.
Which should have no relevance to your status as a student. Unless you’ve been convicted of something which would affect your studies/fellow students, this should not be a thing.
They are, among other things, trespassing on university property. Even if you don’t think their message is objectionable, their delivery of it does affect the university.
Trespassing? They pay to fucking be there.
That doesn’t mean they own the place. The university still makes the rules.
I said the same thing when the cops destroyed the tent I pitched at the movie theater.
I paid for the unlimited soup and salad at the Olive Garden, I should be able to piss in their fountain!
If they were pissing on the lawn sure, tough on them. But they weren’t. They were sitting on the lawn. That they paid to sit on? This is a strawman argument