Four UR students expelled for ‘Wanted’ posters, student protest group says

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Four students allegedly involved in distributing “Wanted” posters of University of Rochester leadership, faculty and employees have been expelled, according to a statement from UR’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter.

The posters, which appeared the night of Nov. 10, targeted some UR community members for their handling of the university’s response to the Oct. 7 attacks against Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza and Lebanon, or for their alleged ties to the Israeli war effort and settlement movement. 

The expelled students—Jonathan Bermudez, Naomi Gutierrez, Samantha Escobar and Jefferson Turcios—were identified as allegedly involved during an investigation by UR’s Department of Public Safety. They were subject to the school’s Code of Conduct violation procedures and also charged with second degree criminal mischief, a class D felony, by the Monroe County district attorney’s office.

The expulsions are the culmination of that code of conduct process; the criminal proceedings against the students are ongoing, with the four charged next expected in court Feb. 4. UR’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine announced the expulsions Friday afternoon on Instagram. The group has spearheaded organizing protests on campus against the war in Gaza and Lebanon. 

A student who spoke on the condition of anonymity says the expulsion letters came Monday. UR spokesperson Sara Miller says that the university recognizes the public interest in the poster incident but it cannot legally confirm or comment on the matter due to its obligations under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. Turcios did not respond to a request for his expulsion letter.

Miller says all student conduct cases are “handled consistent with published processes meeting the institution’s obligation of fundamental fairness while effectively addressing actions found to violate applicable policy and preserving a safe campus environment.”

However, the university’s response to the incident and the criminal charges pressed against the students have drawn controversy

In its statement, the SJP chapter claimed the expulsions are an “unjust and disproportionate response” by the university aimed at silencing pro-Palestinian activism and “deflecting scrutiny from its complicity in perpetuating injustice.” The group is now circulating a petition for the students to be reinstated, their punishment to be reduced, and for the school to commit to reviewing its policies on student activism.

“These students—leaders in their community and committed to justice—were subject to unjust detainment, mistreatment, and now expulsion, without having been found guilty of the offense in a criminal sense and without having faced a fair conduct proceeding,” UR SJP’s statement says.

Justin O’Connor is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer. 

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7 thoughts on “Four UR students expelled for ‘Wanted’ posters, student protest group says

  1. It would be interesting to know what grounds the students were expelled on. The criminal charges were limited to the acts of vandalism (criminal mischief), and not as hate crimes. Curious as to whether the UR expelled them on those charges alone or combined them with some violation of conduct related to the nature of the posters.

    • They violated the rules, in an extremely disgusting and despicable manner, and now they’re facing the consequences. That’s a good thing. Everyone’s always telling parents to stop helicoptering. That also means letting these young adults suffer the consequences of their actions. Maybe if they were raised to be better humans they wouldn’t be out supporting literal modern day Nazis.

  2. I hope our next President will follow through on his promise to remove federal funding from schools that support terrorism.

    I also hope that Congress passes a law so that we, the taxpayers, never have to “forgive” these terrorist’s student loans.

  3. I’ll cut to the chase: The expelled students –kudos to RU for having the cojones to do what so many colleges & universities won’t — are part of a *global* movement heavily financed by Islamist-terrorism-adjacent Qatar and other outfits tied to and/or supportive of genocidal HAMAS (designated a terrorist org. by most western democracies). What they did is not 1st-Amendment-protected protest, but rather the intimidating, harassing and threatening of Jewish and Israeli students and/or staff, following a playbook, if you will, that seeks to normalize attacks upon the Jewish state and people, attacks that wouldn’t be tolerated for an instant were the targets Latinx, African-American-American, LGBTQ+, women, or any other group. A key tenet of that playbook is to selectively abuse to the max western freedoms — for example, due process, which SJP players who incur disciplinary action always allege was violated in their case — to effect the loss of those very freedoms — for example, the right of a Jewish or Israeli student to openly express his religion or her nationality, same as anyone else — the loss of freedom first targeting Jews and Israelis, and then, eventually, any identity or viewpoint unacceptable to the radical Islamists’ and/or allied far-left’s or far-right’s agenda.

  4. There is no place for antisemitic actions or any extremist activity in any school or business in USA. The action of the group is reminiscent to Nazi Germany. It is dark and scary. The fact that official organization in UofR supports these actions is unbelievable and sad. This organization should not have a place in American University. I only hope that UofR president will look at this and cancel this racist antisemitic organization.

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