Gally Football Team Staged The Lockdown

Gallaudet Closed Today; Protests Continue

By Debbi Wilgoren and Susan Kinzie
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, October 11, 2006; 10:24 AM

Scores of student protesters — many of them burly football players — shut down Gallaudet University and two smaller schools that share its campus early today, surprising university officials who had thought negotiations with the demonstrators had started to bear fruit.

Starting about 2 a.m., students gathered at the two entrances to the leafy, Northeast Washington campus, which houses the nation’s premier college for the deaf. As the skies lightened and traffic thickened on surrounding city streets, the protesters banged on drums and gave speeches in sign language, refusing access to staff and teachers who were showing up for work.

“Until further notice, Gallaudet University is closed and all gates are blocked,” the students said in an e-mailed statement. A banner hung over the sign at the stone gate on Florida Avenue NE proclaimed: “This is Not Justice.”

The shutdowns significantly escalated protests that resumed last week over the selection of former provost Jane K. Fernandes to become the next president of Gallaudet. Fernandes, who was chosen by the university board of trustees in May, is to take the helm in January.

Students demonstrated in opposition to the appointment of Fernandes for two weeks last spring, as the academic semester ended, and again last week, while trustees were meeting on campus. On Friday, students locked down a main classroom building. The disruption has prompted counter-protests and complaints from some students and faculty who want life on campus to return to normal.

The protesters want a new presidential search and assurances that those who demonstrated will not be mistreated or punished. They accused police who responded to protests last week of using pepper spray, giving orders without a sign language interpreter and manhandling some
students.
“An oppressive system is not a system that can be negotiated with” the students said in their statement. They urged faculty to meet to discuss the crisis later today.

Among those at the gate this morning were sisters Tara and Leala Holcomb, and their father Tom Holcomb, who had flown in from California with a petition signed by 23 families concerned about the ongoing unrest.

“We are terrified for the students,” Tom Holcomb said tearfully, hugging his girls and recalling a 1990 incident where a Gallaudet student died while being restrained by campus police. The elder Holcomb said he wanted to take his daughters — fourth-generation Gallaudet students — home, but they refused to leave.

“I want to see things change here. I love Gallaudet,” said Tara Holcomb, a senior and student government leader. During the demonstrations last week, she said a campus police officer twisted her arm and pushed her, apparently when officers were responding to a bomb threat.

University spokeswoman Mercy Coogan said Gallaudet administrators had thought negotiations were moving forward. “We were caught completely by surprise,” Coogan said. “We had established ground rules. We had set up another time to begin meeting on the real issues again today.”

Tara Holcomb, too, said there had been progress. But then students from the school’s football team decided the talks were moving too slowly. Quarterback and captain Jason Coleman, who is Tara Holcomb’s step-brother, said the players decided to escalate the demonstrations
as a way of pushing for a resolution.
“Resign now. It’s as simple as that,” the Frederick, Md., resident said, when asked what he would like to tell Fernandes. “If you resign we can move on with our lives.”

In a news release issued at 1 a.m., student protest leaders said the were insulted that outgoing president I. King Jordan took until Tuesday afternoon to respond — through a deputy — to a “contractual agreement” they gave to him Monday night. Coogan said this morning that she had been in touch with Jordan, whose home is on campus, and that he was willing to meet with demonstrators later today.

In addition to shutting down operations at the 1,900-student university, today’s protests forced the closure of two smaller schools on the campus — Model Secondary School for the Deaf, a boarding school, and Kendall Demonstration Elementary. Each school enrolls about
200 students, Coogan said.

The shutdowns intensified the frustration of some students, faculty and staff, who — regardless of their feelings about the presidential search process — have been critical of the disruption of classes and other activities.

“When do these student’s First amendment [rights] end, and my rights begin? I’m tired of being held hostage,” wrote junior Danielle Henkel in an e-mail. ” . . . Over the past week we as students have felt like we live in a war zone, fearing for our very safety.”

Henkel said she is supposed to travel out of town later this week for pacemaker surgery, and is worried she will not be able to leave campus easily.

On Tuesday evening, history professor Barry Bergen said he was collecting signatures in support of a paper he had titled a “A Call for the Return to Education.” The three-statement manifesto acknowledged the rights of all members of the university community to express their
views peacefully and respectfully, but denounced “any protest which closes university buildings, prevents the meeting of classes, or otherwise interferes with the education to which students have a right.” The position paper also said the university board of trustees, which appointed Fernandes, “is the only body with the legal authority to choose the next President of Gallaudet University.”

Because the Hall Memorial Building was closed Tuesday, Bergen said, he had to teach in a different location, using a chalkboard and old notes, and sorely missing the modern technology normally available to him. “When they took over the main academic building and prevented other
students from having access to that education, it went beyond the kind of protest I can support,” Bergen said.

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