Penn bans 24 nonaffiliated protesters arrested at pro-Palestinian encampment from campus

The University of Pennsylvania has barred two dozen people who were arrested during the clearing of the pro-Palestinian encampment earlier this month from being on the school’s campus.

The school’s Division of Public Safety informed the individuals, who are not affiliated with Penn, via recently issued letters. The correspondence states that the people who received the letters will not be permitted on Penn’s campus or in any school building or facility “until further notice without written approval from Penn Public Safety,” a university spokesperson said.

“Some of these individuals also engaged in destructive and unlawful behavior during a protest at the President’s House later that evening,” the spokesperson said. “These letters were issued to protect the community and to prevent further disruption to University operations.”

A copy of the letter, obtained by the Penn student newspaper the Daily Pennsylvanian, indicates that those banned from campus were targeted for their participation in the encampment “despite numerous written and oral notices” that they were trespassing.

“Your participation in the encampment and disregard for university policy and state and federal laws contributed to unacceptable risks to the health and safety of our community,” the letter read. It added that if the individuals did not observe the ban, they could be removed from the premises or arrested, the DP reported.

Penn’s move to ban some encampment participants from campus came days after university and city police disbanded the encampment that stood on College Green for more than two weeks. Amid the dismantling of the encampment, 33 people, nine of whom were Penn students, were arrested.

Since the encampment was disbanded, pro-Palestinian demonstrators have continued mounting protests, including one at Penn over the weekend in which 19 people were taken into police custody after allegedly attempting to seize a campus building.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner has since declined to file charges against four protesters involved in that incident, but approved misdemeanor charges against three others. The other 12 people were given citations for failing to disperse.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators have also since launched an encampment at Drexel University. Drexel president John Fry has called for that encampment to disband “immediately,” writing in a letter to students and staff that the university has the right to “take action against illegal trespassing.”