NEW YORK, NY – Columbia University is being sued by three students, who were suspended for their anti-war protests over the treatment of Palestinians, reported Drop Site News.
The lawsuit, added Drop Site News, states that “the university violated its own policies during the disciplinary process…the university targeted the students for their views, and…violated New York’s landlord tenant laws when it evicted the students from university housing.”
According to Drop Site News, the university suspended all three students—Brandon Murphy and Aidan Parisi for one year, and Catherine Curran-Groome for two years, and “singled out a few of us to try to make an example out of us,” said Curran-Groome.
James Carlson, the attorney for the three students, told Drop Site News, “The university just pulled out all the roadblocks and threw out its rule book in an attempt to punish and silence the plaintiffs however they could.”
“What really drew me to Columbia was the history of student organizing, student activism and how Columbia has adopted that into its mission statement. Once I got to Columbia, I realized that was not necessarily the case,” said Parisi.
Parisi, alongside Curran-Groome, began attending demonstrations against the war in the fall of 2023, as reported by Drop Site News.
“Columbia University responded to student organizing against the war swiftly, suspending groups like Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voices for Peace in November 2023,” according to Drop Site News.
Drop Site News writes Curran-Groome set up an event on campus, titled “Resistance 101,” which would feature guest speakers, and went through the approval process with the university.
In response to this, a university official stated the only choices for the event were “to move the event to Zoom, move it off campus, or move it to another date.”
Drop Site News reported that “the event drew scrutiny and criticism from outside the university, specifically from the House Committee on Education and Workforce, which was already investigating university responses to anti-war protests and allegations of anti-semitism.”
Columbia issued a statement a few days later, stating “the event that took place Sunday night was unsanctioned and unapproved.”
Drop Site News explains that the representing attorney of the three students stated to the news outlet that “the university has not provided any evidence that it did not approve the event being held; and, according to the complaint, the group was never directed to cancel the event—only to relocate off-campus or reschedule.”
As for the disciplinary process enacted by the university for the students’ activism, Curran-Groome explained: “I said I needed a week to talk to my lawyer and would not attend a same day interrogation. They said I had 48 hours to attend an interrogation or be suspended.”
Both Curran-Groome and Parisi received emails the next day, noting their interim suspensions “stating that they had ‘compromised the well-being and safety of the University community.’”
“If they were actually truly committed to a good faith investigation, then they wouldn’t have threatened us with our lives and our livelihoods,” said Parisi.
