University of Arizona president Robert Robbins and Arizona State University president Michael Crow are being praised for their handling of student protests by the state’s top education official.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne praised the two men and and said that K-12 schools that may be confronted with similar unrest should follow those universities’ model.
“Robert Robbins and Michael Crow deserve exceptional praise for standing up to antisemitism on their campuses,” said Horne. “This stands in stark contrast to how many colleges, universities and ideological faculty members have kowtowed to disruptive pro-Hamas demonstrations. It is also an excellent template for K-12 schools in Arizona to follow should any attempt be made by students to copy the type of protests that have shut down portions of college campuses and caused Jewish students to feel unsafe.”
“President Robbins wrote an eloquent letter in which he encourages students ‘to embrace your First Amendment rights and make your voices heard, but please do so peacefully, safely, and civilly.’ His words were bizarrely described as ‘inflammatory’ by leaders of the planned protest,” said Horne. “Notwithstanding that kind of response, a protest this past weekend was peaceful. ASU experienced more disturbing behavior that required multiple arrests, but President Crow’s decisive action made sure that calm was restored. Their courage and conviction in the face of potentially disruptive protestors should be applauded and emulated.”
ASU Police arrested 72 people for trespassing after they set up an unauthorized encampment Friday, in violation of university policy. Encampments are prohibited on Arizona State University property. Of the 72 arrested throughout the day Friday, 15 were ASU students; about 80 percent of those arrested were not students.
According to ASU, a group of people – most of whom were not ASU students, faculty or staff – created an encampment and demonstration that continued until well past 11 p.m. when the group was instructed repeatedly to disperse. Individuals who refused to leave after numerous warnings were arrested and charged with criminal trespass.
Horne claimed that in some “antisemitic behavior” was displayed by high school students after the October 7 attack on Israel” and “faculty piled on to attack the victims of October 7.”
As a result, Horne is urging “schools to ensure students are using valuable classroom time for academic instruction and not for protests that can promote a climate of fear or intimidation.”
Fledgling and seasoned protestors groomed in fascist ideology.
Certainly the parents of these students are facilitating the overthrow of American society by giving non student radicals (professors, foreign unvetted alien activists, and anarchists) access to further dumb down and indoctrinate their children. Fledgling and seasoned fascists all of them.
Horne can’t seem to stay in his lane. He doesn’t oversee universities and he’s not the AG. He’s Jewish, so he’s also conflicted in this.
Horne has enjoyed a stellar career and is admired by many educators throughout the U.S. Your comment convinces me you are the type of person who puts others down in an attempt to push yourself up.
I am not any of those things either but I have a strong opinion on those protests.Any student protesting if identified or arrested should not receive their degree. They have no idea what they are protesting.
Do they not get it that the palestinian monsters started this whole thing with their crossing into Israel and killing huge amount of Israelis? Killing innocent babies, setting people on fire who were minding their own business.
Don’t they get it that they raped a lot of women, and to this day still hold over 1 hundred hostages including children? Boy what a waste of their parents money to be so dang stupid!
Are you saying a Jew should be prohibited from defending himself and other Jews from antisemitism in the public forum?
The arrest of protesters is a joke because there are never any significant consequences.
Well, kudos to Robbins and Crow. I’m am not a little impressed and surprised, frankly. I’m all for protesting – for or against Israel or Hamas, it doesn’t matter – but those students who advocated for physical harm to Jews need to be expelled. As for the 80% – follow the money and report the findings.