Harvard University students are rallying in support of the women accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct and are openly revolting against his teaching gig at the law school this winter.
Hundreds of students walked out of their classes Monday afternoon to join a rally that protested the school’s silence on Kavanaugh’s scheduled Winter 2019 Samuel Williston Lecturer on Law series titled “The Supreme Court since 2005.”
The protesters — undergraduates and law students — mostly wore all black and a pink button stating, “I Believe Christine Blasey Ford,” showing their solidarity with Kavanaugh’s first accuser.
Despite several calls for Harvard Law School Dean John Manning to disinvite Kavanaugh for the lecture series after allegations of sexual assault emerged, the school’s administration has declined to offer comment on whether the class could be canceled.
Manning and his office did not respond to a request for comment for this report.
Several Harvard professors feel the same way as the students, calling for further investigations into Kavanaugh.
A message posted to Facebook has encouraged students to send emails to Manning expressing their concern about Kavanaugh teaching the course. “I am … extremely concerned about the fact that Judge Kavanaugh is still scheduled to teach at HLS when there have been serious, credible allegations of sexual assault and discrimination against him,” reads a suggested email template for students to use. “Your radio silence dismisses the real experiences, fear, and trauma of survivors and everyone in our community that supports them.”
[Also read: Yale Law School classes canceled to help anti-Brett Kavanaugh protest]
Harvard Black Law Students Association President Lauren Williams, who spoke at the rally, said that she cannot dismiss the claims without an investigation and Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. “America is at a crossroads,” the third-year law student said. “It can turn a willfully ignorant blind eye, as it has done countless times before, or it can stand by these survivors and ensure that there is a fair investigation and a fair judiciary hearing.”
Williams did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment on the protest, which was organized by the anti-harassment student advocacy group the Pipeline Parity Project.
Four students at the Law School published an opinion piece in the Harvard Law Record on Thursday, questioning how the university will handle the Kavanaugh issue — specifically whether HLS will take Ford’s allegation seriously. Kavanaugh has taught at Harvard over the last decade.
Molly Coleman, Yaacov Meiseles, Alexandra Kohnert-Yount, and Sejal Singh were the authors. Singh said that allowing Kavanaugh to lecture at Harvard and confirming him to the Supreme Court would send a message to people that there are no consequences for sexual abusers. “We should think about not just the message that his presence on the Supreme Court would send to the American people, not just to women, but to boys, who see that there’s no consequences for this kind of behavior,” Singh said.
Another one of the authors, Coleman, said the Pipeline Parity Project will wait until next week to take further action.
“We’re waiting to see how the next week plays out, especially in regards to steps taken (or not taken) by the Senate before we decide on where we go from here,” Coleman wrote in an email, according to the Harvard Crimson.
Kavanaugh denies all allegations made by Ford and his other accusers, Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick. Ford and Kavanaugh will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday to testify regarding the allegations.
The vote to move Kavanaugh’s confirmation forward is scheduled for Friday.
