VIDEO: Anti-Trump protesters disrupt Georgetown classrooms
Anti-Trump protesters disrupted multiple Georgetown classrooms last week in an effort to resist the presidency of Donald Trump.
Members of the RefuseFasicm.org movement infiltrated classrooms across campus including the Reiss and ICC lecture halls, where they distributed flyers and denounced the President-elect. The individuals, who were not affiliated with Georgetown University, continued their protest in Red Square before being removed from campus by GUPD.
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Witnesses in Professor Arsenault’s International Relations class reported that two individuals pried open an exterior door and entered the ICC auditorium.
Harrison Nugent (SFS ‘20) said that two men ran to the center aisle and passed out flyers, while bragging that they were the men who were arrested during Senator Jeff Sessions’ confirmation hearing.
The men proclaimed that they would not stop protesting until they “prevented fascism from entering the White House.” They urged students to rebuke the policies of Donald Trump and Mike Pence and to “join the fight against fascism” by participating in their protest.
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In Professor Arsenault’s class, the protesters were forcibly removed by two teaching assistants, both of whom had prior military experience. The TAs grabbed the protesters and pulled them outside of the auditorium.
“This is what fascism will look like if we don’t act now,” the protesters shouted as they were removed from the room.
Reactions to the protests were mixed. Several witnesses reported that most students were shocked by the incident. Other students yelled at the protesters to leave the classroom.
According to the group’s website, the Refuse Fascism movement is a national organization committed to stopping Donald Trump from taking office. Organizers have held events in Washington, D.C. and across the country in order to prevent Donald Trump’s “illegitimate” and “fascist regime” from taking office.
GUPD Chief of Police Jay Gruber said that officers escorted the individuals outside the university’s main gates at 37th and O Street following the incident.
“This type of incident is difficult to prevent,” he wrote in an email.
Gruber said that students and faculty must ask these protesters to leave immediately and stressed the importance of notifying GUPD over the phone or on the LiveSafe app.
While no injuries resulted from the protests, some students were alarmed by the ease with which the protesters gained access to Georgetown classrooms.
“It is easy to feel like you are living in a secluded bubble on campus, and it is kind of scary that these random people made their way into my class,” one student told The Georgetown Review.
This article was originally published in The Georgetown Review, a conservative student newspaper affiliated with the Leadership Institute's Campus Leadership Program. Its articles are republished here with permission.
Follow The Georgetown Review on Twitter: @thegureview
