University of Georgia students challenging suspensions from pro-Palestine protests

ATHENS, Ga. - Six University of Georgia students are planning to file an appeal for their suspensions over their participation in pro-Palestine protests on campus earlier this year.

The protesters say they have waived their rights under the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act and will be tried at a formal hearing on Tuesday afternoon.

The six students were among the 16 members of the group Students for Justice of Palestine who were arrested on April 29 after setting up an encampment on the Old College Front Lawn at the university's North Campus.

After refusing to follow orders from campus police to remove their tents and leave the area, officers and Georgia State troopers demolished the encampment and took the group into custody on criminal trespassing charges.

According to University of Georgia spokesman Greg Trevor, the protesters "were advised repeatedly, for more than an hour, that the tents and barricades they had put in place had to be removed and that they must comply with applicable policies."

"They were also given the opportunity by Student Affairs personnel to make a reservation and relocate to one of our centrally designated forums, but they refused," Trevor wrote. "After multiple warnings that they would be arrested for trespass if they did not comply with our policies, at 8:30 a.m., UGA Police were left with no choice but to arrest those who refused to comply."

In a statement, the students say they were placed on interim suspension and barred from campus, leading them to be evicted from student housing, kicked out of leadership positions at university organizations, and forced to fail or drop classes.

The students claim that the university has "continued to try to suppress, harass, discriminate against, and unjustly sanction" the group.

"Regardless of the disciplinary outcome, we want to reaffirm our commitment to solidarity with the Palestinian people and their ongoing and ceaseless resistance to genocide, apartheid, and occupation. In choosing to ignore our requests to meet for over eight months, UGA's administration has made clear their complicity in the atrocities being waged in occupied Palestine," the group said in a statement. "In preferring to arrest, ban, and suspend students for protesting a genocide rather than come to the table, the university administration further confirmed its stance in opposition not just to free speech but to speech in support of Palestinian lives and liberation."

The hearing will take place on Tuesday morning at the University of Georgia's Memorial Hall.