Students occupied an administration building at Pomona College on Friday afternoon, refusing to obey college officials’ demands that they leave during a protest in support of Palestinians. Twenty people were arrested, according to the Claremont Police Department.
The protest at Alexander Hall was organized by the student-led group Pomona Divest from Apartheid. More than 150 students were participating, as of late afternoon, about 50 of them on the steps of Alexander Hall or clustered around the entry, with the rest on the sidewalk. They chanted and clapped along.
Among the chants: “Stop the killing, stop the slaughter, Gaza has no food or water!” and “Up, up with liberation. Down, down with occupation!”
The protest was attended by students from Pomona College, Pitzer College, and Claremont McKenna College, according to Heather Ferguson, a professor at Claremont McKenna.
A news release from Pomona Divest from Apartheid said that roughly 18 students entered Alexander Hall around 4:10 p.m. in response to the college’s removal of its Apartheid Wall. A statement from Claremont police said an estimated 30-40 protesters entered the building.
“Pomona is taking down the wall,” read an afternoon post on the group’s Instagram account, @pomonadivestapartheid. It called for others to come join the effort.
One student on scene during the late afternoon estimated that there were about 30 protesters inside the building, and dozens outside. Shortly thereafter, about 30 officers with Claremont Police Department wearing riot gear arrived at the occupation, according to another Instagram post.
“Immediately after their arrival, the 18+ students sitting in Starr’s office were barricaded in by Campus Safety Officers, who positioned themselves in front of the exits,” the students’ release said.
At that time, according to Claremont police, about half the protesters left the building. The remaining were given dispersal orders.
Police then arrested 19 people on suspicion of trespassing. One additional protester was arrested on suspicion of obstructing an officer.
All of those arrested were transported to the Claremont jail, where they were booked and released. They all have orders to appear in court.
Ferguson said she saw a campus safety officer handing some of the Pomona College students who were arrested paperwork announcing they were temporarily suspended from the school. The paperwork explained how to appeal.
A crowd gathered outside the jail while protesters were being booked, according to the police department, but no additional arrests were made.
The college’s chief communications officer, Mark Kendall, emailed a statement.
“We uphold the right to free speech and to protest within the lines of our long-established Claremont Colleges demonstration policy,” it read in part. “We will not permit the presence of masked, unidentified individuals on our campus refusing to show identification when asked.”
The protests began about a week ago. Participants constructed a mock apartheid wall and occupied the Marston Quad, with some sleeping outside in tents, and the group has since disrupted campus tours with chants funneled through loudspeakers.
Their demands include that Pomona College publicly condemn the actions of the Israeli government, and call for a cease-fire in Gaza.
On Friday afternoon, Pomona College President Gabrielle Starr released a statement about the escalating events, saying that protesters had “refused to identify themselves to Campus Safety and Student Affairs staff” and had verbally harassed staff, including by “using a sickening, anti-black racial slur in addressing an administrator.”
She said there had been notices to the group to “stop their harassment and provide identification,” and that the college had offered to help move the protest materials to another location.
Starr demanded the group’s immediate dispersal.
“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,” her statement said.
“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.”
Staff writer David Allen contributed to this report.
