More than 200 Gallaudet University students remained barricaded inside the main classroom on campus Friday in protest of the selection of the school’s president.
The protesters took control of Hall Memorial Building around 1:30 a.m. Friday, blocking the doors with benches, tents and a “human blockade” of about 15 protesters at each entrance.
Students and university police scuffled later that morning and by Friday afternoon a video of theincident was posted on the Internet. Nobody was seriously injured or arrested, but the protesters complained that some students were pepper-sprayed. Gallaudet spokeswoman Mercy Coogan said pepper spray was not used.
Graduate student Ryan Connerson said the protesters have enough food, water and bedding to hold the building until their demands are met.
“We have two demands,” he said through an interpreter. “One: Reopen the search for president, and two, promise that there are no reprisals to those involved in the protests.”
The demonstrations are a continuation of the angry protests last spring after Jane Fernandes was named president.
The school, which has 1,200 students, is the only liberal arts school for the deaf in the country.
The entire deaf world is watching what is happening in D.C., and students at deaf schools around the country have erected tent cities in support of the Gallaudet protesters, Connerson said.
Administrators are negotiating to get the students out of the building and are considering having the Metropolitan Police Department remove the students by force. D.C. police were at the campus Friday, Coogan said.
Connerson said the clash with university police Friday morning was an example of the problems the students face.
The police officers didn’t understand what was happening because they didn’t understand sign language, he said. Many teachers and a majority of administrators and the school board members don’t know how to sign either, he said.
“We don’t have access to our language,” he said. “Security doesn’t have access to our language, therefore we can’t be safe. Oppression here happens every day.”
