ATHENS, Ohio — Two individuals arrested last week during a protest at an Ohio University Board of Trustees meeting pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor criminal trespass charges at an Thursday, April 23 arraignment in Athens County Municipal Court.
The two students were arrested while participating in a protest over OU’s compliance with Senate Bill 1, response to student demands related to ICE and investments in Israel, and lawsuit related to the OU faculty union, according to reporting from WOUB.
The demonstration started outside before entering Walter Hall, where the board meeting was taking place.
Ohio University Police Department said in a statement on X that the two students were arrested after refusing to leave the building. OUPD said the students violated OU’s indoor space policy. That policy says demonstrations can only be held in certain areas of Baker Center and in otherwise empty classrooms.
According to WOUB’s reporting, one of the students who was arrested asked officers, “I’m not allowed to hold a sign in a building?” before officers placed the student in handcuffs.
At a press conference organized in support of the defendants after the arraignment, a protest attendee and founder of the student group Black Panther Legacy, AJ Jones, said the April 16 protest did not disrupt the board meeting.
“Throughout the whole entire event, we were very peaceful,” Jones said.
OUPD’s statement noted that about 75 students entered Walter Hall carrying signs and using a bullhorn. Jones said the bullhorn was used at the protest outside but did not recall the bullhorn being used inside the meeting.
OUPD’s statement says, “People were admitted to the Governance Chamber until the posted room capacity was reached, at which time the remainder of the group were advised that they could continue their demonstration outside the building, in compliance with university policy.”
The statement alleges that the protestors who were not allowed to enter the meeting were “blocking the main hallway of the building and continuing to engage in loud and disruptive behavior.”
Jones rejected OUPD’s characterization. “I do not believe that we were disruptive at any point during it,” Jones said. “I really feel like the disruption was the OUPD.”
The initial police report from OUPD officer Christopher Russell, obtained by the Independent via a records request, does not mention disruptive behavior. Instead, the report says that protestors were asked to leave the hallway “due to it not being a designated area to demonstrate.”
The report adds that the two protestors arrested “were issued numerous warnings to vacate the area from uniformed law enforcement officers but refused to leave and were subsequently arrested for trespass.”
Jones said, “The two people that were detained, I saw, personally, both of them speaking to the police in a calm manner. They weren’t yelling. There was no violence, there was nothing.”
OU Communications & Public Relations Strategist Sam Pelham told the Independent OU believes in “an expressive campus environment, when conducted safely and legally” but that “those who choose to take their right to free expression beyond the established boundaries of the law and violate existing University policies will be held accountable for their actions.”
At the arraignment Thursday morning, Athens County Municipal Court Judge Todd Grace initially sought to order the two students to have no contact with OU’s Walter Hall, where the protest took place. The students’ attorney, Kimberlee Francis, a managing attorney for Center for Student Legal Services, objected to the move — and offered a preview of the possible defense for the students — noting that they were participating in a protest in an “open, public area.”
Francis and the students who were arrested declined to comment for this story.
The prosecution, after consulting with OU, ultimately did not request the no contact order, and Grace did not issue it.
The student protestors drew support from about 30 community members who packed the courtroom during the April 23 arraignment. Grace asked the supporters to leave the courtroom. Many attended the press conference afterward, where representatives of several community and student groups spoke in support of the defendants.
Speakers at the press conference emphasized the issues that led the student protestors to the board meeting at Walter Hall.
“This was a protest that demanded the university administration listen to the voices of students and faculty,” Henry, a member of Students for Justice in Palestine who used only a first name, said.
“These arrests are part of a pattern of dismissal and disrespect by OU admin,” Henry said. “OU has dismissed student demands regarding SB1, student safety from ICE and ending investments in the genocidal Israeli state. Admin has also been attempting to deny the faculty their right to unionize with ridiculous delays and even a lawsuit that uses student money.”
Multiple speakers mentioned a referendum that appeared on this year’s OU Student Senate election ballot, which called upon OU to divest from Israel. That referendum passed with 86% of the vote, according to reporting from The Post.
United Campus Ministry Executive Director Ari Faber said OU’s stance that it will not take action on the student referendum and its lawsuit challenging the successful faculty union election are among issues that demonstrate a “pattern about how decisions are made and whose voices are taken seriously.”
Pelham told the Independent in an email, “We value input from Student Senate and the student body it serves; however, Ohio University will neither consider, nor act upon, any resolution or referendum that proposes illegal actions or could expose the University to civil liability.”
Ohio law bars state agencies and institutions from divestment from Israel.
Heather Cantino with Southeast Ohio Jewish Voice for Peace said at the press conference that OU President Lori Gonzalez has “displayed a dangerous and arrogant ignorance of Ohio’s obligations to abide by international law. It is not legal to support genocide.”
Cantino also said the university could choose not to renew investments in Israel for financial reasons.
“The students’ call for divestment was entirely within the bounds of Ohio law, which states that investments must be made on a purely economic basis,” Cantino said.
Athens County withdrew its investments in Israeli bonds due to financial concerns earlier this year.
Multiple OU faculty members spoke at the press conference Thursday, too.
Matthew deTar, an associate professor in OU’s School of Communication Studies, spoke on behalf of the faculty union, United Academics of Ohio University.
“UAOU condemns the arrest of peaceful demonstrators by Ohio University’s private police force,” deTar said. “Peacesful student demonstrators exercised their constitutional rights by voicing their opinion at a public meeting of the governing body of OU. It is shocking and appalling that Ohio University administration would believe that the arrest of these students is in any way keeping with the mission of the institution.”
DeTar said OU’s freedom of expression policies are “selectively applied to intimidate students into silence.”
“I can think of no better demonstration of informed citizenship than peacefully exercising a right to free speech in a way that a governing body will hear you,” he added.
Joe McLaughlin, an OU associate professor of English and “a proud member of UAOU” who has spoken on behalf of the union in the past, described OU’s freedom of expression policy as “Orwellian,” noting, “And I teach Orwell.”
“Here’s the thing about freedom of expression: It’s not worth a damn if one is not allowed to speak up and protest in places where one’s voice will be heard, where one’s message has the possibility of making an impact,” McLaughlin said.
“The public, including students, should not be excluded from [the OU Board of Trustees] meeting because of fear of what they might say or do, and those meetings should be held or relocated to space with the capacity to accommodate the interested and invested public,” McLaughlin said.
He added that the students “were arrested because they violated an unjust policy, one aimed at narrowing free speech rights to the point where they become irrelevant.”
He said faculty attended to support the students because “we too know what it is like to be ignored and disrespected,” a reference to the university’s fight against the faculty union.
DeTar called on Athens prosecutors to drop the case against the students.
Asked about that demand from UAOU organizers, Athens Law Director Lisa Eliason, whose office is prosecuting the case against the students, said, “It’s so early in this case that I think that would be premature until we take a look at it completely.”
She said she does not know much about the case, and that the office has not yet received discovery.
Faber said court costs for the students will be paid at least in part by UCM’s Emergency Support Network. Faber described the network, which had raised a little less than $1,000 by press time, as “an emergency legal fund to provide support to Athens County residents who face arrest while engaging in non-violent direct action.”
The two students’ next court date is a pre-trial hearing currently scheduled for May 18.
