Mishka Zena

By LUBNA TAKRURI, The Associated Press
Oct 6, 2006 3:50 PM

WASHINGTON - Protests escalated at Gallaudet University on Friday as
about 200 students blocked access to a campus building in opposition to
the university’s choice for president.

Students at Gallaudet, a university for people who are deaf and hard of
hearing, claimed that the protests were marred by rough actions by some
of the school’s police officers.

Jory Pederson-Dike, an 18-year-old Gallaudet student from Fremont,
Calif., said one campus police officer choked him Friday morning after
students tried to prevent the officers from entering the building. He
and other students said they were pushed by several officers.

“I was in shock,” Pederson-Dike said. “I didn’t know they could do that
to me. I thought they couldn’t touch me.”

In a statement, the university said “rumors of student injury are
false.” It also said that the protesters were disrupting classes and
other work in the building and had been asked to leave.

The students began blockading the campus building Thursday night,
stepping up their protests of the university’s selection process for a
new president. They believe their opposition to the current choice,
then-Provost Jane Fernandes, has been ignored.

Pederson-Dike said he spent the night in tents in Hall Memorial
Building along with other students. He said in the morning they saw
campus police officers walking quickly toward the building and tried to
block the officers from entering by forming human barricades.

Some students said they were more upset by the police reaction than the
school’s decision for president.

“I feel it’s proof that we do need a new system and a new leadership
because they proved they don’t care about students’ concerns,” said
Latoya Plummer, a junior at Gallaudet.

Friday afternoon, students were still inside the building, blocking
police and others from the nine entrances. Many protesters stood on the
stairs under a steady light rain, holding signs with slogans such as
“Stop the Oppression.”

Communicating with reporters through three interpreters and by typing
on their Sidekick phones, students expressed anger that the
university’s board of trustees chose Fernandes to lead the school last
spring.

Students and some faculty said they felt their input was not considered
and that the selection process was unfair. The faculty responded by
giving Fernandes a vote of no confidence in May.

http://www.examiner.com/a-330410~Gallaudet_students_allege_campus_police_brutality.html