Students at a D.C. university are responding to a social media post by President Donald Trump in which he claims federal funding will be pulled from universities that allow what he called “illegal protests” to take place.
Students at a D.C. university are responding to a social media post by President Donald Trump in which he claims federal funding will be pulled from universities that allow “illegal protests” to take place.
Alicia Alleyne from Fredericksburg is a second-year student studying occupational therapy at George Washington University.
“I kind of felt angered, discouragement, like we can’t protest. We can’t have a freedom of speech,” Alleyne told WTOP.
In a Truth Social post, Trump said, “Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came,” the post read. “American students will be permanently expelled, or depending on the crime, arrested.”
Graduate student Isabella Perez said in situations during which students are disciplined by a school during a protest, she doesn’t believe the federal government should be involved in the disciplinary process.
“I don’t think that they should have a say in if we get expelled or not,” she said. “I don’t see protesting as a bad thing. You’re expressing your feelings and everything.”
The university saw several demonstrations last year that remained peaceful, though administrators labeled one protest of the Israel-Hamas conflict as an “illegal and potentially dangerous occupation of GW property.”
The university claimed that demonstration included protesters who were not members of the school community and D.C. police eventually cleared out the protest.
“We saw a lot of action last year with some pretty conflicted results, and hopefully, as these things continue to progress, the university will continue to provide an open floor for these students to voice, themselves and their opinions, any concerns,” said Colston Judd, a staff member and grad student at GW.
Scott Michelman, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia, took issue with the president’s post.
“His statement today is really a toxic stew of misinformation, baseless threats and complete ignorance of the First Amendment,” Michelman said.
Michelman said, legally, the federal government cannot stop funding for an educational institution from going out based on speech that occurs at that institution.
“Unless it amounts to prohibited discrimination, for which the university has been deliberately indifferent,” he added.
Michelman said demonstrators cannot be imprisoned or deported for speech nor can the United States expel students from their college or university.
“That is a decision of the school, not the government,” he said.
Michelman said the ACLU is prepared to “defend free speech rights of Americans.”
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