AUSTIN, TEXAS - APRIL 24: A student is arrested during a pro-Palestine demonstration at the The University of Texas at Austin on April 24, 2024 in Austin, Texas. Students walked out of class and gathered in protest during a pro-Palenstine demonstation. Protests continue to sweep college campuses around the country. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
AUSTIN, TEXAS - APRIL 24: Students rally together during a pro-Palestine protest at the The University of Texas at Austin on April 24, 2024 in Austin, Texas. Students walked out of class and gathered in protest during a pro-Palestine demonstration. Protests continue to sweep college campuses around the country. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
AUSTIN, TEXAS - APRIL 24: Law enforcement work to secure a demonstration during a pro-Palestine protest at the The University of Texas at Austin on April 24, 2024 in Austin, Texas. Students walked out of class and gathered in protest during a pro-Palestine demonstration. Protests continue to sweep college campuses around the country. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Students are part of the soul of social change in this country. They become outraged, their tight fists raised and posters held high.
Their voices become so loud that sometimes change happens.
This week, students at the University of Texas and other colleges across the nation have joined the intense chorus of students at New York’s Columbia University protesting the war in Gaza and supporting Palestine. Some 34 demonstrators were arrested Wednesday at UT, with some pinned to the ground by police.
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UT's faculty has condemned the administration’s decision to call in state troopers to disperse the protest, which they said posed no threat of violence or disruption of classes. Charges against the protesters had been dismissed by Thursday morning.
Pro-Palestine protests have sparked clashes with police in other places, too. At New York University, school officials said they received reports of intimidating chants and anti-Semitic incidents, according to CNN.
No anti-Semitic incidents were reported at the UT protest, yet none of the pro-Israel counter-protesters were arrested, and some of them heckled pro-Palestine protestors as they were being taken into police custody.
Silencing students who are engaged in peaceful protest about relevant political issues undermines our values of free speech and academic freedom. Student voices can galvanize communities and force change to happen when the status quo has dug in deep.
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Silencing their voices impedes progress and inhibits change or, at the very least, stifles important conversations.
According to the ACLU Texas, the right to protest is afforded by the U.S. and Texas constitutions. We have the freedom of speech and the freedom to assemble, "which protect not only the ability to verbalize protests and engage in symbolic speech such as wearing an armband but to arrange peaceful marches and protests on certain public lands."
In late March, Gov. Greg Abbott ordered public universities to revise their free speech policies. He called pro-Palestine student groups, saying they should be subject to discipline.
It’s free speech until you disagree with those with political clout, but American history is ripe with stories of students who spoke out and changed their world.
In 1960, Houston's first sit-in protesting racial discrimination was at the Weingarten's grocery store lunch counter at 4110 Almeda Road. It was led by more than a dozen Texas Southern University students. It resulted in Houston’s peaceful desegregation, in which community leaders banded together to bring desegregation quietly and peacefully.
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Then in 1989, students at Stephen F. Austin High School in Houston’s East End protested the deplorable lack of resources, including outdated textbooks and over-capacity classrooms. Hundreds of teens walked out. Their actions helped improve the conditions of the school and got the principal fired.
In February, Madison High School students walked out in protest of the school's "hostile environment" after administrators enacted a stricter cell phone policy being the breaking point.
The issue is not whether we agree with students' outcries against war or a cell phone ban in a high school, for that matter. Silencing students' voices is a slippery road to suppressing rights for everyone.
Crackdown on UT Austin pro-Palestine protest is a step backward
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25.04.2024
AUSTIN, TEXAS - APRIL 24: A student is arrested during a pro-Palestine demonstration at the The University of Texas at Austin on April 24, 2024 in Austin, Texas. Students walked out of class and gathered in protest during a pro-Palenstine demonstation. Protests continue to sweep college campuses around the country. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
AUSTIN, TEXAS - APRIL 24: Students rally together during a pro-Palestine protest at the The University of Texas at Austin on April 24, 2024 in Austin, Texas. Students walked out of class and gathered in protest during a pro-Palestine demonstration. Protests continue to sweep college campuses around the country. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
AUSTIN, TEXAS - APRIL 24: Law enforcement work to secure a demonstration during a pro-Palestine protest at the The University of Texas at Austin on April 24, 2024 in Austin, Texas. Students walked out of class and gathered in protest during a pro-Palestine demonstration. Protests continue to sweep college campuses around the country. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Students are part of the soul of social change in this country. They become outraged, their tight fists........
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