Pomona College protests: 20 arrested after storming president's office

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Nearly two dozen pro-Palestine protesters were arrested during a demonstration at Pomona College in Claremont Friday after allegedly storming the college president's office, officials said.

The protest was organized by a group called Pomona Divest Apartheid, which is demanding the college divest from Israel's war and the nation's actions in Gaza. The group had been protesting on campus since last week. Their demonstration included an installation art piece the group called an "apartheid wall." According to the group, Friday's protest at Alexander Hall was a response to the school's "forceful removal" of the wall earlier that day.

According to Claremont Police, more than 100 protesters had gathered outside the building by 4 p.m. Friday, and as many as 40 protesters had entered President G. Gabrielle Starr's office. When officers got there, they were able to negotiate with the group, and get about half of them to leave, CPD said. The rest remained. Officers arrested 19 people for trespassing and one for obstructing an officer.

Viewer Samson Zhang, who covered the event for a student publication, shared the tense moments when law-enforcement officers made their way to the protest site.

PHOTO: @wwsalmon

SkyFOX was over Claremont's city police station around 10:30 p.m. Friday, as the protest had moved there, with demonstrators demanding the release of those arrested.

All 20 were later released.

Friday's protests come after Pomona College students reportedly voted for the school to divest from Israel and weapons manufacturers.

"Today’s escalation by Pomona College’s leadership, which led to student arrests, represents a clear choice by Pomona College to put students at risk and suppress students' right to free speech rather than meaningfully engage with the hundreds of students opposed to their policies," Pomona Divest Apartheid said in a statement to FOX 11.

President Starr issued a statement Friday night. In it, she claimed that Friday's protests came after protesters had, over the last week, "refused to identify themselves to Campus Safety and Student Affairs staff, and proceeded to verbally harass staff, even using a sickening, anti-black racial slur in addressing an administrator."

Starr said that protesters camping out on campus voluntarily removed their tents Friday. 

"In preparation for events scheduled on Sunday, and in line with our policy, campus staff began to remove the signs and other material that remained. They informed the individuals present that they could move their own material or it would be stored for pickup," Starr's statement read. "Several individuals proceeded to verbally harass campus staff, including the use of a racial slur in addressing a campus administrator. This is unacceptable."

Starr went on to say that Pomona College students arrested Friday would face suspension, and any students of the other Claremont colleges would be disciplined at their own schools and banned from Pomona College's campus.

"We uphold the right to free speech and to protest within the lines of our long-established Claremont Colleges demonstration policy," the school said in a statement to FOX 11.