Pomona College President Gina Gabrielle Starr on Friday issued a letter titled “Campus Harassment and Disruption,” addressing her college community, in which she reported:
“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 the rights of others. In addition, we require all individuals on campus to identify themselves upon request by campus administrators or Campus Safety. This is imperative for the safety of our community, especially when these individuals are masked.”
Pomona College is a private liberal arts undergraduate college in Claremont, California, a suburban town 30 miles east of Los Angeles. Established in 1925, it enrolls approximately 1,700 students. Country and Western singer Kris Kristofferson graduated from Pomona in 1958.
On Friday morning, workers started removing signs and other display materials from the lawn, including a 32-foot long “apartheid wall” outside the Smith Campus Center, protesting “the unequal treatment of the Palestinian people living under the brutal conditions of the illegal Israeli Occupation,” as well as the administration’s refusal to obey the students who voted in favor of the college divesting from companies that support Israel.
Needless to say, this didn’t go down well with the pro-Hamas students.
“Several individuals proceeded to verbally harass campus staff, including the use of a racial slur in addressing a campus administrator. This is unacceptable. These actions are actively destructive of the values that underpin our community,” President Starr wrote.
Around 1:15 PM on Friday, three pick-up trucks arrived at the eight-panel wall, with college staff disembarking and initiating its dismantling. They had to take down the wall because there were activities planned for Sunday on the lawn. But as college staff labored to remove the wall, the pro-Hamas students did their best to prevent them from doing their jobs.
Eventually, a crowd of close to 70 people started chanting “Free, free, free Palestine,” “Israel bombs, Pomona pays, how many kids will you kill today?” and “Gaza, Gaza, head held high, we will never let you die.”
At 4 PM, 18 students entered Alexander Hall without permission and took the stairs up to President Starr’s office where they declared the place under occupation. Somehow another wave of students, 50 strong, joined the sit-in shortly thereafter.
MASS ARREST OF STUDENT PALESTINE PROTESTERS AT POMONA COLLEGE IN LA RIGHT NOW.
I’m covering for student publication. Please DM me for info + media. pic.twitter.com/ZPFICvg9vh
— Samson Zhang (@wwsalmon) April 6, 2024
Around 4:20 PM, some 20 patrol cars arrived at the college, with some officers entering the building and the rest securing the perimeter. The cops quickly started pushing the “occupiers” out of the second floor, arresting an estimated 20 of them. They were taken to the Claremont Police Department, where a crowd of 100 was already gathering.
At 20 after midnight on Saturday, all the detainees were released after being served “Emergency Interim Suspension” and told they were not allowed on campus for classes or any other activity, nor were they allowed to join Zoom sessions for any of the classes.
Video from Pomona College showing the massive police presence. School administration has ordered the arrest of at least 21 students. This should be getting national attention. https://t.co/hejm1F0Fnr pic.twitter.com/kZqMgOotbT
— People’s City Council – Los Angeles (@PplsCityCouncil) April 6, 2024
As President Starr phrased it:
“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. 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. Individuals participating in this event must disperse immediately. Those who remain will be escorted off campus.”
Sounds like a strategy.
