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5 Students arrested at Penn State during NGA meeting
July 12, 2000 @ 05:00:00 am
University Park, PA / Redirection2000 / - 5 students were arrested and carried out of Osmond Lab by Pennsylvania State Police at Penn State University aproximately 6:15pm Monday evening. The students were part of a group that hosted the Peo...

5 students were arrested and carried out of Osmond Lab by Pennsylvania State Police at Penn State University aproximately 6:15pm Monday evening. The students were part of a group that hosted the People's Convention, a socially responsible alternative to counter the National Governors' Association meeting, which held a rally, march, and informative speakers from July 7-9. The events were university sanctioned and funded in part by the University Park Allocation Committee.

Students originally planned to stand peacefully with signs across from the HUB student union building, which was being closed down for use by the NGA event, "A Taste of Pennsylvania." Secret Service and State Police ordered that the students could not stand with signs on the patio of Osmond Lab, but could only stand down the road at the patio of Boucke building. Pollock road was apparently open to pedestrian traffic, but pedestrians were not allowed to be vocal or hold signs while walking past the HUB.

When questioned by students of who gave the order, the secret service agent did not provide them with a name of who ordered such a request. Students then remained in Osmond where they had hung a banner from the building's approved banner location which read "The Peoples Convention / a socially responsible alternative to the Governors' Convention / July 7-9."

15 minutes before the "A Taste of Pennsylvania" NGA event was scheduled to begin in the HUB student union, university officials ordered students to take down a banner which they had hung Sunday morning. Osmond's second floor railing is a designated space for banners and had been reserved by Redirection2000, a student group that organized the events over the weekend. University officials claimed to not have the form reserving the banner space, prompting students to guard the banner by standing out on the balcony and holding the ropes that held the banner. Students then put duct tape over their mouths in protest of the University's attempt to censor their speech.

After 20 minutes of staying on the balcony, police officers cut the rope to the banner shortly before arresting the 5 students who immediately went limp in defiance of their arrest. State Police carried the 5 students out of the building and held them at Penn State Police Services. The arrested students refused to identify themselves, but were released on their own recognizance and without being processed by District Justice Bradley Lunsford. The court date has been set for July 19th.

The 5 students were formally charged with "Criminal Trespass" after a notice of trespass was given by a Penn State police officer. Ironically, students are required to go onto the balcony in order to hang banners and has been the practice for years. With the timing of the order to take the banner down being so close to the NGA event, few question the reasoning behind the order.

"This is blatant censorship by the University," said Justin Leto, one of the directors for Redirection2000.

"They [University] wanted to protect the NGA from any alternative opinions and they did that by cutting down our banner, arresting us, and carrying us out of the building in handcuffs. We are not the criminals here," added Leto.

Justin Leto has been identified as being one of the students arrested, while the others are listed as Jane A. Doe, Jane B. Doe, Jane C. Doe, and John Doe. In all, there were 3 women arrested and two men.

Redirection2000 planned events all weekend long that included a rally outside Beaver Stadium on Saturday and March on Sunday. Members of the group have been against the structure of NGA meeting because its non-representative nature.

"They only allow coporations to shape public policy," said Jane A. Doe, another unidentified organizer for Redirection2000 and one of the organizers arrested on the balcony.

"It exludes those who can't afford a seat at the Governors' table," she added; citing how certain corporations donated as much as $150,000 in order to attend the conference.

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