Parents of Those Arrested at Inauguration Remain Outraged

On March 22, 2024, 13 students were arrested outside of President Jay Bernhardt’s inauguration. Discipline News has been in contact with two parents who offered their reflections on the arrests of their children. Given the current threats by the Trump Administration against pro-Palestinian activists and retaliatory measures by ICE against protesters, we will not include their full names but refer to these parents as VM and CJ. 

Both parents described feeling that their children were betrayed by the school's administration. VM writes,”we had entrusted [Emerson] with our daughter’s education, safety and well-being, and they had not only failed to protect her, but had baited her, and the other 12 students, into the arrest.” She explains that the day before the arrests, Bernhardt sent a message to the Emerson community affirming students’ right to demonstrate ‘immediately outside buildings and venues.’ The students respected those boundaries and kept their demonstration outside, “only to be met with law enforcement,” said VM. She adds that “ECPD then went on to actively solicit complaints of public disturbance from passersby…for the formal legal charges that grounded their arrest.”

These concerns were discussed in depth in a six page letter the parents of the arrested students sent to the college administration and the trustees following the arrests. To this day, they have not received a response. According to CJ, they were sent an acknowledgement of receipt, but have received no contact since. 

VM’s initial reaction to her daughter’s arrest was one of disbelief, deep concern and anxiety that was later replaced by outrage as she understood that Emerson was not working alone to silence protestors; that higher ed institutions across the country were doing the same and that for their efforts to be effective they “needed to be performative… disproportionately harsh and punitive.”

For CJ, learning of her son’s arrest was like a splash of cold water. He had never clashed with authority before. He’s always been the kid that teachers loved, his parent says, “who now felt the need to answer his conscience.” According to her son, ECPD walked past white students who were closer to the doors of the theater and made their way to apprehend two black students who were standing farthest away from the doors. Growing up in the George Floyd era her son understood what he was witnessing, so he walked over to those officers to let them know that they were “being watched,” and they arrested him, too. 

VM adds, “as if subjecting eighteen year-olds to the daunting world of the law enforcement and US judicial system wasn’t enough, Emerson immediately, that same night, sent the students an intimidating and harshly worded letter with allegations of violations of the Code of Community Standards, along with strict restrictions that amount to dorm-arrests.” She believes the whole process was planned in advance of Bernhardt’s inauguration to make “an example for others” who may wish to demonstrate.

According to CJ, her son received the Community Standards email 15 minutes after he was released from jail, “they knew he was apprehended and never called us to let us know. This was a serious situation.” CJ adds that following the backlash from the community, the allegations of Community Standards violations were dropped, but the communication from the president to the community felt like he was “rubbing salt into our wounds” because it included lies, she says. Bernhadt claimed that Emerson asked the DA to drop all charges, but when students attended their arraignments, the DA denied ever hearing from the college.

CJ recalls an incident in which the students attempted to meet with Bernhardt but the location of the meeting was changed at the last minute to 20 Park Plaza, a building that houses the Israeli Consulate. It angered her to think about how the college “intentionally endangered these kids, especially international students who would have to give their personal identification” to a security desk that reports to a foreign government. To her, Bernhardt is “a petty small man who tried to issue a police report against 19 year olds because they messed up his special naval gazing inauguration.” 

For VM “A year out from this experience, our children continue to navigate through an education system that is unrelenting in its pursuit of those who dare to voice their opposition to genocide. They have reworked their student conduct policies, embedding them with vague all-encompassing restrictions.” She adds that Emerson “now moved onto using ID swipes and camera footage, not to safeguard our children, but to identify those who may have participated [in demonstrations on public sidewalks]” 

To her, “A year out, what is becoming increasingly clear is that college and university administrators, one by one, are not just betraying the trust of parents but also abrogating the mission and values of their organizations.”