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We condemn the silencing of college students across California and the country, and we urge the
protection of First Amendment rights for all students, including those who protest in support of
Palestine.
Across California and the United States, university and college leaders are attacking students’ constitutionally protected rights to freedom of speech, assembly and association.
Whether on their personal social media accounts or in peaceful public protests, as students condemn the ongoing genocide in Gaza and call for their school administrations to divest from the Israeli occupation, they are met with increasingly heavy-handed repression from campus leadership. Students are bearing witness to the continued decimation of Palestine and the Palestinian people, and they do not want to be complicit. Students and families pay tuition and taxes, and they do not want their dollars to support apartheid, so they are collectively raising their voices to make their demands known. Yet leaders seem determined to silence them.
From UC-Berkeley to Cal Poly to Pomona College to Humboldt to USC, students who support of Palestine have been the targeted victims of state-sanctioned silencing, harassment, and violence. In addition to actions stripping them of their valedictory speaking privileges and suspending students, universities and colleges are calling upon militarized police forces in full riot gear to target and arrest peacefully protesting students. In California, the legislature is seeking to further suppress students’ first amendment rights through bills like SB 1287 and AB 2742. This is appalling and a threat to our democracy.
We demand an end to the suppression of speech and the escalating violence against protesting students. We call on university and college leaders to be clear-eyed in their response to student protests, protests that are simply calling for the humane treatment of the Palestinian people, the divestment from war profiteering, and accountability for the perpetrators of genocide.
American colleges and universities have long been bastions of free speech, protest, and assembly. Student protests have historically made our country a more just and equitable place–from the Civil Rights movement and anti-war activism during the Vietnam War to more recent Black Lives Matter protests and activism addressing climate change.
Students are leading the country once again. They have a right to protest. They have a right to be heard, and they deserve to be protected.
As individuals and organizations that protect first amendment rights and advocate for equal protection for all people, irrespective of personal characteristics, we bear witness to the genocide in Gaza and the state-sanctioned suppression of student voices, and we stand in full solidarity beside all students peacefully advocating for justice in Palestine.
If you are a current or former leader or activist, or involved with organizations that seek to protect students’ first amendment rights, regardless of their personal characteristics, and would like to sign this letter, please fill out this form. You must be affiliated with an organization based in California.