We do not want to discipline activists who violate school policy
The University of Pennsylvania's Palestine Free School is demanding that school officials drop disciplinary action against five activists for their role in the mid-February “study.”
According to daily pennsylvania, Freedom School members occupied an area of the Van Pelt Library for about eight hours on February 19, putting up posters “on furniture and windows” in violation of school policy and “disrupting” other students trying to study.
Penn officials claim activists continued to put the posters back up even after being told multiple times to take them down.
One Freedom School member declared that the school “loves to propagate that laws without morals are vain,” but that “there appears to be no morality whatsoever” about those who choose to support Palestine in Gaza.
Last week, Freedom Schools created a petition calling for sanctions against students to learn “peacefully and non-destructively” to be lifted.
The petition presents a slightly different version of what happened in the library, claiming that Penn targeted the five students because of their “former affiliation with pro-Palestinian organizations on campus.”
Despite complying with each and every requirement, students still received unfair disciplinary referrals. […] The university's efforts to intimidate student activists show Penn's involvement in the genocide in Palestine. Not only do the Penn administration's actions have no basis or underlying evidence to support them, it is clear that Penn is attempting to quell the pro-Palestinian movement and censor dissenting speech from its billionaire donors. Penn administrator's blatant abuse of power…
The Freedom School was created in November and initially presented Penn with three demands: “Call for ceasefire in Gaza, protect freedom of speech, […] Critical thinking about Palestine occurred across campus.”
Earlier this month, about a dozen Freedom School activists again violated Penn's conduct policy by disrupting a board meeting. The meeting was over in just a few minutes.
Protesters claimed Penn had donated to the IDF, the Israeli Defense Forces, a claim denied by a school spokesman.
more: University of Pennsylvania 'die-in' blocks entrance to building 'solidarity with civilians in Gaza Strip'
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