Edited by:  TJVNews.com

Jewish students at Cooper Union in New York City have expressed deep concerns about their safety on campus following a disturbing incident on Wednesday when they were locked inside the university’s library as pro-Palestinian protesters pounded on doors and windows, according to report on Thursday in the New York Post.

Approximately 50 students, including a small group of Jewish students, found themselves barricaded inside the library after a Cooper Union staffer locked the doors as protesters entered the building, the Post report indicated. Demonstrators, some carrying Palestinian flags and signs reading “Zionism Hands Off Our Universities,” descended on the library.

Cooper Union sophomore Taylor Roslyn Lent, a chemical engineering major, shared her feelings of fear and distress during the incident. According to the Post report, she said, “I can say that I felt unsafe and unprotected. I would like the university to admit what went on and not avoid the topic. I was shocked that I was experiencing this at my private university — in America — in 2023.”

In the aftermath of the incident, many students, particularly those who identify as Jewish, have questioned their safety and well-being on campus. Lent emphasized her concerns, telling the Post, “I mainly fear for my safety on campus and in my school buildings.”

University president Laura Sparks acknowledged the “peaceful protest” in a statement, explaining that some student protestors moved inside the library, the Post reported. She mentioned that the library was temporarily closed while the demonstrators moved through the building and made noise.

“To maintain a safe space, the library was closed for approximately 20 minutes while some student protestors moved through the building, some chanting protest slogans and banging on the library doors and windows,” Sparks said, according to the Post report.

The Post also reported that some have called the NYPD to make arrests, but Chief of Patrol John Chell told reporters, “There was no direct threats.”

Plainclothes officers were with the protesters at the library, Chell said.

“Students were not barricaded,” Chell  told the Post. “The doors were open but closed. A school administrator thought it was prudent to close the doors and place private security as the protesters were coming down the stairs . . .“For about roughly 10 minutes . . . [protestors] were banging on the doors of the library and banging on some transparent windows that you could see into the library,” Chell added, as was noted in the Post report.

Some students and their families are calling for further action. As was noted in the Post report, Attorney Gerard Filitti, representing a group of Jewish students at Cooper Union, criticized President Laura Sparks and called for her removal, accusing her of failing to protect the students. He also expressed a desire to press criminal charges against the demonstrators, consider legal action against the school, and investigate the alleged delayed response by the NYPD, the Post report added.

Solomon Rosenzweig, an alumnus of Cooper Union, described the distress his 22-year-old daughter, a senior at the university, experienced during the incident, as was indicated in the Post report. She was inside the library during the protest.