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Four Harvard Graduate School of Education students were suspended for two weeks from the school’s library after they helped stage a pro-Palestine “study-in” on Nov. 12.
The two-hour study-in — and the Gutman Library’s response — mirror a wave of similar demonstrations that have taken place across Harvard libraries this semester. Students and faculty who have engaged in the actions have typically received two-week bans from the libraries.
During the Nov. 12 demonstration, which began at 12 p.m., around eight students attempted to enter the second floor of Gutman, according to three students who attended. There, they were met by HGSE Executive Dean of Administration Jack Jennings, who informed the group that administrators would check IDs, prompting the protesters to move to the library’s first floor.
When the group settled on the first floor, the students said, Jennings immediately began checking their IDs before leaving after roughly 15 minutes. Because many HGSE classes end at 1 p.m., the demonstration had grown to around 30 people by the time it ended at 2 p.m. — though latecomers were not subject to ID checks.
During the study-in, as with previous study-ins, participants read or did work with pro-Palestine signs taped to their laptops, including “Palestine Will Be Free” and “Every University in Gaza Has Been Destroyed.”
In a Friday email to suspended students obtained by The Crimson, Gutman Library Director Alex R. Hodge said the suspensions were issued in response to “organized group activity that explicitly used our reading and common areas to make a point.”
“Given your violation of these rules, and consistent with the University’s response in prior situations, your physical access to all Gutman Library reading areas — including but not limited to the reading area in which the organized activity took place — will be suspended from today until November 29,” Hodge wrote.
In an emailed statement, University spokesperson Jason A. Newton did not directly confirm that HGSE students had been suspended.
“Participants in protests that occurred inside libraries this semester have lost, for two weeks, access to the particular library building in which they demonstrated,” he wrote.
Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine — an unrecognized coalition of pro-Palestine groups which posted a video of Jennings checking students IDs to Instagram following the demonstration — did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Avery D. Thrush, one of the suspended students, said she was trying to “raise awareness around education in Palestine.”
“It is just the fundamental belief that all children have the right to their childhood,” she said.
Despite the consequences of participating in the study-in, Thrush said it was “worth it” in her mind.
“I think that the motto of the Ed school is ‘Learn to Change the World’, and what that means for us is ensuring that every single student everywhere — every child everywhere — has an opportunity to advance their lives through education,” she added.
—Staff writer Kelly A. Olmos can be reached at kelly.olmos@thecrimson.com.
—Staff writer Kenith W. Taukolo can be reached at kenith.taukolo@thecrimson.com.
