Jewish students cornered in Cooper Union library by pro-Palestinian protesters want school prez fired
Representatives for a group of Jewish students at Cooper Union want the university’s president fired for what they claim was her failure to protect them from a mob of pro-Palestine protesters who cornered them in the school library Wednesday.
“She failed in her duty,” attorney Gerard Filitti said of university president Laura Sparks at a Thursday press conference on the East 7th Street campus.
“All of these schools have a duty to keep students safe — and these students are not safe,” he continued. “They do not feel safe coming back to campus. They are not here today. They are afraid to be here today because of what happened yesterday.”
Filitti also said he wants to press criminal charges against the demonstrators, claimed he’d sue the school and called for an inquiry into why the NYPD was allegedly slow to respond — he said students were trapped in the room for at least 40 minutes despite repeated 911 calls.
“We don’t want a replay of Columbine,” Filitti said. “We want police officers, in uniform, to help these people.”
The NYPD disputed this account, however, with Chief of Patrol John Chell saying Thursday that officers were there “from start to finish” and that the pro-Palestine group was only banging on the library windows for about 10 minutes.
“There were no direct threats,” Chell said. “There was no damage, and there was no danger to any students in that school . . . students were not barricaded.”
Filitti dismissed this, saying students didn’t see a uniformed cop until after 8 p.m.
“Obviously, there’s a disconnect between what the NYPD’s saying and what students actually experienced,” the lawyer said.
The demonstrators — many of whom were carrying Palestinian flags and “Zionism Hands Off Our Universities” signs — had scheduled the 1 p.m. demonstration outside the 7 East 7th St. building when they decided to move inside.
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The group of several dozen demonstrators blew past security guards’ attempts to stop them, video shows.
It seemed like they were heading to university president Laura Sparks’ office to demand she condemn Israel’s attacks on Gaza Strip civilians when they suddenly pivoted to the library
Security on the 7th floor locked the doors to keep them out, but that didn’t stop them from banging on the big plate-glass windows and chanting, one of the 11 students trapped inside told The Post.
“When they started banging on the door, my heart started pounding,” the student said. “I was crying. I think if the doors weren’t locked — I don’t know what would have happened.”
In a Thursday statement posted to the school’s website, Sparks never directly responded to call for her to step down, but said the student protest led to discord at a “new and unacceptable level.”
She said the library was closed for about 20 minutes at about 4 p.m. as the student protesters walked through the building. The library staff was also inside, she said, and the protesters dispersed by about 5:30 p.m.
“Cooper Union’s security team was in communication with NYPD throughout the day and evening, and NYPD was present on campus this afternoon and remained on campus after participants dispersed,” Sparks wrote.
“There is room for productive debate and dissent here, but there is no tolerance for hate or threatening conduct,” she continued. “We condemn discrimination of any kind, including antisemitism and Islamophobia. We condemn hateful and threatening acts of any kind – written, spoken, visual, or physical.”
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But the statement may not be very comforting to those like Sari Ancona, whose daughter was trapped inside the library during the ordeal.
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“She felt they were trying to get in, to break the windows and to get in there and do something,” Ancona told The Post. “They were frightened, they locked the doors.”
“The police did finally show up, and they let the kids out,” she continued.
“I met up with my daughter right after that — she’s frightened,” Ancona said. “She’s frightened to be on this campus.”
