Palestine Solidarity Committee leader suspended, asks judge to halt suspension – The Daily Texan

The university on Wednesday suspended the leader of the Palestine Solidarity Committee until August 2025 for disruption of the campus during his participation in a pro-Palestinian demonstration on April 24.

On Thursday, he filed a motion asking a federal judge to block the University from enforcing the restraining order. The university has until 17:00 on Monday to respond to the motion.

PSC leader Ammer Kaddumi in August filed Suit filed in federal court against the university, President Jay Hartzell, and former principal Sharon Wood for “attempting to unlawfully restrict” the right to free speech. Kaddumi requested that the disciplinary investigation against him be stopped, but the judge rejected this request, saying that Kaddumi had not suffered any injuries because he had not yet been suspended.

Kaddumi’s lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.

The university notified Kaddumi on July 3 that it was taking disciplinary action against him, saying he “did not comply” with law enforcement and was “disrupting” campus activities. Following a 10-hour disciplinary hearing spread over two days, the Dean of Students’ Office granted him a suspended suspension on September 26.

The Office of Student Conduct and Academic Integrity appealed the suspended suspension on October 3, and the Dean of Students revised the sanction to a three-academic term suspension on October 23. He is prohibited from entering campus and cannot receive course credit during this period.

After Kaddumi’s removal waves of disciplinary action Disciplined against pro-Palestinian demonstrators Most protesters were sentenced to suspended suspensions or academic probation, but at least Another student was suspended.

law enforcement 57 protesters arrested He was arraigned on a trespassing charge on April 24 and has since been arrested by District Attorney Delia Garza. dropped all charges from that day onwards.

“When we have a reasonable basis to believe that a planned activity will disrupt the campus, we may legally determine that the activity cannot proceed as planned,” university spokesman Mike Rosen said in an email. “We don’t have to wait for outages to occur.”