Reuters: U.S.: Santa Monica college chief defends pepper-spraying of students

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Santa Monica college chief defends pepper-spraying of students Apr 4th 2012, 20:54 By R.T. Watson SANTA MONICA, California | Wed Apr 4, 2012 4:54pm EDT SANTA MONICA, California (Reuters) - The president of Santa Monica College defended on Wednesday the use of pepper spray by campus police against protesting students at a Board of Trustees meeting that left as many as 30 people overcome by the caustic substance. The melee on Tuesday night, which erupted during a protest of higher tuition being charged for extra summer-school courses, is under investigation by the school, college President Chui L. Tsang said in a statement. Footage of the incident on local KTLA television news showed dozens of shrieking students clutching their hands over their eyes and pushing their way past police as they tried to flee through a hallway. In his account of the incident, Tsang said a college police officer unleashed the pepper spray "to preserve public and personal safety" when demonstrators forced their way into the board room and "had overrun the door and the personnel stationed at the door." "Unfortunately, a number of bystanders, including college staff, students and other police personnel, were affected," his statement said. "Although a number of participants at the meeting engaged in unlawful conduct, Santa Monica College police personnel exercised restraint and made no arrests," he said, adding that the unlawful conduct included setting off fire alarms and attempting to disrupt the meeting. The melee followed a similar incident in November when campus police at the University of California, Davis, pepper-sprayed a group of student protesters during an anti-Wall Street demonstration in a confrontation captured on video and widely broadcast on TV and the Internet. The UC Davis chancellor came under heavy fire for that incident, and a report on the investigation was due for release later this month. In the Santa Monica case, Tsang cited Santa Monica Fire Department reports as saying that 15 to 30 people were treated at the scene for the effects of the pepper spray, and that three were taken to the hospital for further treatment and released. Limited seating space in the board room, and the objections by some students to watching the meeting from an adjacent overflow room, appeared to have heightened the confrontation. "I was standing outside the Board of Trustees meeting asking a police officer if he could go inside and ask if they could move the meeting to a bigger room, and out of nowhere I breathed in and there was this pepper smell," Marjohnny Torres-Nativi, 22, a member of the student government, told Reuters. "Then I saw police officers tackle the (student) vice president in front of me, while she was already crying because she was already pepper-sprayed," he said. "I saw people on the floor choking." A counselor at the college, Patti Del Valle, said the students were demonstrating against a two-tiered fee system due to go into effect this summer that would significantly raise the cost of attending the community college. Students said the protest was peaceful. Fire Department Captain Judah Smith estimated that about 200 people were in and around the meeting at the time. College spokesman Bill Smith put the number at a little more than 100. Tsang said the new fee structure would raise tuition from $138 for a typical three-credit course to $540 for roughly 50 "extra self-funded classes" being offered this summer. He said the higher fees were necessitated by "the greatest budget crisis ever to face higher education in California." The board took an hourlong recess after the pepper-spraying incident before resuming its meeting. (Additional reporting and writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Jackie Frank) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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