PHOENIX (CN) — A federal judge declined on Friday to reverse disciplinary action given to 20 Arizona State University students who were arrested and suspended for a campus protest against U.S. support of Israel's actions in Gaza.
The 20 plaintiffs in the case were among more than 70 students arrested by university police Saturday during a campus sit-in objecting to the United States' continued military aid to Israel, which has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
Immediately after their arrests around 11 p.m., the 20 students were suspended for violating the university’s anti-camping laws. While many students had pitched tents throughout the day, the plaintiffs had no camping equipment and hadn’t indicated that they planned to stay the night, three students testified Friday afternoon. One plaintiff was arrested at 8:30 a.m., 15 hours before anti-camping laws would have taken effect.
The students received emails Sunday informing them of their suspensions, which included campus bans and prohibitions from communicating with professors about coursework. With the next day being the beginning of finals week, the students were hindered from completing exams, turning in final projects, or in one case, graduating and receiving a degree.
The students sued the university on Tuesday and moved for an emergency injunction to revoke the disciplinary actions. Despite the pressing timeline, U.S. District Judge John Tuchi said the plaintiffs failed to prove their likelihood to show at trial that irreparable harm was caused. He denied the motion without prejudice.
Attorney for the plaintiffs David Chami said he wasn’t surprised, given the rarity of success for that type of motion.
“I think the university took disproportionate force,” he said outside the federal courthouse in Phoenix. “The actions they used to arrest and then the decision they made to suspend, without having all the evidence, seems to be contrary to what we do in this country: innocent until proven guilty.”
In the hearing Friday, Chami called the protest “the epitome of peace.” The university didn’t counter that claim.
“The whole world is watching,” he said in his closing statement. “It is about the message we send to the world about what it actually means to have a democracy. The plaintiffs were engaged in a constitutionally protected activity. This is about the First Amendment.”
Defense attorney David Gaona rejected the First Amendment argument, insisting that the disciplinary actions were specific to violations of the university’s anti-camping laws. He said the university strongly supports students’ right to protest so long as its policies aren’t violated. He said there’s no evidence that the suspensions were retaliatory or had anything to do with the subject being protested.
Chami countered that the interest of the university to not have tents on campus doesn’t trump students’ First Amendment rights.
“Students don’t shed their rights at the schoolhouse gate,” he said.
Chami questioned some of the suspended students, who said they had no intention of camping overnight and were given no warning before police arrested them. The student arrested in the morning, freshman Harry Smith, missed the due date for one final project while sitting in a campus police holding cell.
Two students said they were given meetings with student services Tuesday, before some of their assignments were due, but didn’t attend. Gaona suggested that because they skipped the meetings, they lost their chance to rectify the suspension before their grades became final. He said the university may have lifted their suspension if they explained that they had finals due. The students said they didn’t want to rush into a meeting without counsel.
Gaona avowed on behalf of student services Vice President Joanna Vogul that the university would work with students and professors to complete coursework if their suspensions are successfully appealed, but provided no guarantee of success.
“Even if harm is found, it is not irreparable,” he said.
In the meantime, students are barred from registering for fall classes.
A passerby complimented plaintiff and university senior Breanna Brocker’s bright yellow nail polish as she walked out of the courthouse. Tears welling in her eyes, Brocker said they match the yellow dress she intended to wear to her graduation ceremony.
“I’m a 2020 high school grad, so I wasn’t able to walk then” she said. “I’m not able to walk now.”
Knowing what she knows now, though, she said she still would have done the same thing.
“It’s disheartening to see every single day, all of the death and destruction that’s been happening over there, and it seems like there’s nothing we can do,” she said. “And we keep sending money."
“Seeing the student protest coming across my feed, I was honored to take part in something similar on my own campus,” she said.
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