Lawsuit filed against Columbia University for allegedly violating safety protocols

more protests more police and now a lawsuit across the country tightening security as protests at colleges and universities continue to spread amid the Israel Hamas War hundreds of people now arrested Nationwide as students continue to demand that their schools cut Financial ties with Israel Columbia University in New York still the epicenter of those protests as the school is now ending negotiations and telling students that they either need to leave the encampment by two p.m. or risk suspension then in Southern California violence erupting there over the weekend at UCLA when thousands of protesters broke through a barrier between Pro Palestinian and pro-israel demonstrators then back here in our nation's capital at George Washington University protesters tearing down barriers securing the university yard some lawmakers now calling for the National Guard to even step in saying demonstrations are being infiltrated by profession organizers our Alex pre has been covering all these protests all the developments uh and yet another protest that's happened now on the campus of Ohio State University Alex let's get to that in just a second um but I want to start with Colombia apparently now this class action lawsuit has been filed against Columbia University for apparently violating student safety protocols what can you tell us well Cara right now at Columbia University the clock is ticking so you mentioned that lawsuit but also uh less than an hour now uh the university says that students and protesters there have to basically evacuate otherwise uh they will not be in good standing and will be suspended this is according to the university pending a further investigation now we saw Ariels earlier today of just how large that encampment is and I can tell you that it doesn't really seem as though anyone is moving at least with uh with with with any with with any haste and so you know right now we're we're we're leading up to a uh a potential Clash uh come 2 p.m. all right and then there's what more can you tell us about this class action uh lawsuit that's been uh filed apparently this just uh came across the wires what do you know I know you're just learning about it as well well so I'm I'm reading in with this as as as as you are as well Kira but this Echoes some of the Grievances that we've heard from student body groups across the country right whether it be from Columbia University to Ohio State to to USC uh many of these students they're not just calling for the University to take act or their universities to take action the prop Palestinian groups to take action and divest from Israel they're also complaining about the way they've been able to protest and some of the police response uh that has been essentially uh initiated uh by by universities across the country another one that happened earlier today uh UG and and we've certainly heard from student groups there uh that uh that have not appreciated uh some of the way that these encampments if you will have been have been busted up and so what you're seeing right now is the the legal battle of that at least play out uh at Colombia and what's going to be interesting is okay how does this trickle down and affect some of the responses that we that we see at other other universities across the country okay and I'm looking right now at the complaint and it's talking uh about there University personal stories of Columbia students and the impact for calls on the calls for terrorist attacks on Jews and open support for Hamas uh and what it's had on their learning uh the lawsuit also saying that it's focusing on Columbia's decision to allow the extremists including non- students on campus while making clear that Jewish students aren't safe on campus these are all the complaints being made in this lawsuit and finally there's a request within this lawsuit for an immediate injunction requiring the school to follow the examples of some of its peers and ban outside agitators and students who are inciting violence from campus so as we watch these developments there at Colombia now this class action lawsuit where you are you are now seeing protests uh on the the campus there has it been violent have there been arrests what's happened well Kira so listen things are peaceful right now and I will say that Ohio state has kind of been the beneficiary of this being uh the the last couple of days of final exams they w up tomorrow and so we've actually seen a lot of the students move off off campus and so that's uh that I think is has been part of the reason why things have been peaceful at least this week but late last week headed into the weekend we did see clashes here uh about uh 35 arrests from Thursday into Friday night a huge group of hundreds here uh gathered in what they call the oval uh they were asked to disperse uh going into the night by state troopers also campus police that didn't happen in a timely fashion and so we saw clashes even here in Ohio and I will say that over the past I'd say last six months we've seen demonstrations per um uh protest up and down what they call High Street that is the main artery here in Columbus Ohio demonstrators uh both uh Pro Palestinian and also pro-israeli uh trying to get their their voices heard uh so this isn't something that's that's new here but today Kira we have a number of these demonstrators that were arrested being arraigned another set will be arraigned on Wednesday but as you mentioned earlier something that's been pointed out is only a handful of them uh have been identified as OSU students all right thank you so much Alex appreciate it

Channel: ABC News

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Keywords: abc, arrests, columbia, jewish, new, news, nypd, p_cmsid=2494279, p_vid=news-109751984, palestinian, passover, protests, rabbi, students, university, york

Id: cnanT7TzeU4

Length: 5min 43sec (343 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 29 2024