Three Columbia University students suspended over pro-Palestinian protests have sued the university, claiming they were targeted for their views and that the university did not properly follow their own disciplinary procedures.
"This is a case where Columbia University basically went far out of its way to unjustly punish and silence these students," the student's attorney, James Carlson, told dropsitenews.com.
Aidan Parisi and Brandon Murphy were each suspended for one year, while Catherine Curran-Groome was suspended for two years. The initial suspensions the students received stemmed from a "Resistance 101" event held in March 2024.
Following that event, six students were initially suspended, but in two cases the sanctions were lifted. The other students received eviction notices to leave student housing within 24 hours, the Columbia Spectator reported.
According to dropsitenews.com, Resistance 101 featured speakers focusing on Palestinian human rights and included informaiton about using different strategies to confront "occupation and colonialism, including armed resistance."
Among the speakers was Khaled Barakat, who is allegedly a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation (PFLP) of Palestine - a terrorist organization according to the U.S., the Columbia Spectator reported.
The Columbia chapter of Students Supporting Israel posted a clip from the event in which Barakat refers to his "friends and brothers" in Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, and the PFLP, the newspaper reported.
In the dropsitenews.com article, it states that the students moved the event off campus after university officials would not approve it. However, the university has maintained the event happened on campus.
"We are aware of an unsanctioned, unapproved event that took place Sunday night. Columbia canceled the event, denying requests to use university space, as did Barnard," the student newspaper quoted a statement from the university following the event. "Despite this, the event organizers held the event in a residence with an online option."
The student have alleged in their lawsuit that the university did not follow its own policies in disciplining them. The students newspaper reported that the university hired former law enforcement officers - private detectives - to investigate the Resistance 101.
"It was quite petrifying," Parisi told dropsitenews.com. "I hear two knocks at my door. And I go to my door and I see two random strangers, two bald men, that identified themselves as private investigators looking into the event."
After being suspended for the "Resistance 101" event, the students participated in the on-campus, Gaza solidarity encampment, incurring another suspension while they were still disputing the first disciplinary action, dropsitenews.com reported.
"It basically just created this snowball effect where the plaintiffs and others continued to accrue more and more bogus disciplinary charges, all with the intent of stopping their pro-Palestine advocacy," Carlson told the website.
