An Anonymous Interview with a Student Regarding the Protest on 10/10/2025

by Cat Gilligan

Cat Gilligan: Do you want to start by telling me a little bit about why you decided to become involved with the protest that took place on Friday? 

Anonymous Student: Since 2023, I've been involved in a lot of pro-Palestine activism. I think that part of the reason why I became involved is because of my Jewish identity; I wanted to understand what I had been brainwashed into thinking about Palestinians, and then overcome that, and learn about the genocide. So since then, I've been participating in activism continuously.

CG: So when you went to the hotel on Friday, it was to confront the board of trustees about divestment?

AS: Yeah.

CG: When you first arrived outside of the hotel, what was the atmosphere like? Were police and Campus Safety already on the scene? Did you go with a group of people or did you go on your own and meet up with other people there?

AS: We all met up in Tappan and walked over to the hotel. By the time we got there, the police were already outside. 

CG: Do you wanna talk a little bit about what the protest initially looked like? Were you chanting? Did you have signs? Were you making noise?

AS: Yeah, we were chanting; we had a speaker and a megaphone. We had lots of DIY noisemakers that everyone was shaking and banging on, so it was largely a noise demo. The main thing that we were chanting was “Disclose, Divest, We will not stop, We will not rest.”

CG: When you were engaging in this noise demonstration, how did the police react? Did they ignore you?

AS: Okay, I should elaborate. It was a noise demo, but we were also trying to get inside of the hotel.

CG: Okay, yeah, I figured that might be the case. So at what point did the protest stop being just a noise demonstration? When did people start trying to enter the hotel in an attempt to meet with members of the board?

AS:  People were kind of doing both things the whole time. Like we walked towards one of the doors, and tried to get in; that's when the police brutality started. 

CG: So when you were trying to enter the hotel, that's when things started to escalate?

AS: Yeah.

CG: When you initially got there, did you have the sense that the situation was going to escalate? Or was it unexpected? 

AS: We knew there was a chance that something like this could happen, but we weren't expecting anything this big. 

CG: It seems like some administrators have alleged that a student brought a crowbar to the protest, and was using it to pry open the door to the hotel. To the best of your knowledge, was this actually the case? And if not, can you explain what really happened?

AS: So a few of the noisemakers were essentially just pie tins, like the aluminum ones you can get at Safeway or Trader Joe's. The police were blocking one of the doors, and then someone noticed that there was another sliding glass door. They took the top off of the pie-plate-noisemaker contraption, poured out the rocks that were inside, flattened the pie tin, and handed that to another protester who tried to wedge it into the sliding glass door. They then tried to open the door and failed. So you know, there was no crow bar, a pie plate is nothing at all like a crowbar. It was just a flimsy piece of aluminum. 

CG: I know that several students, including multiple first-years, were injured in this confrontation with police, and I know that there was pepper spray involved. Can you tell me a little bit about how everything played out once the conflict escalated?

AS: As I recall, and my recollection of the timeline might not be perfect here, the physical confrontation started when we began trying to get into the hotel, which happened five or ten minutes after we arrived. When we were in a place that the police didn't want us to be, they would grab people by the shoulders and throw them backwards onto the ground. I was one of the people that got injured at the event. I think I fractured my hand. 

CG: Do you want to speak about your injuries, or maybe discuss the injuries that some of your peers and friends sustained? I know that somebody was concussed.

AS: Whenever I was in the “wrong” place or doing something that they didn't want me to be doing, the police would grab my shoulders and throw me backwards. And the warning that's supposed to precede the physical violence tended to happen at the same time; they would grab my shoulders and throw me to the ground as they were in the process of saying “get back.”

CG: So there was no verbal warning?

AS: There might have been some, but it was very loud, and it was difficult to hear what was going on. They never made any statements like “we will have to use force if this continues,” or anything like that. Then around the same time, after I was thrown down, another person tried to make sure that I was okay, and when they were checking on me, they apparently went in a place that the police didn't want them to go, so the police threw them against a wall, and they really hurt their shoulder. They weren't able to move their shoulder for two days, and they're still in a lot of pain, and have to use an ice pack to help with the swelling. I should note that both of us, me and this other person, are first years with disabilities. We were being very intentional about not being identifiable at the protest. We were covering our faces because we feared retaliation from the administration, and potentially the police. Neither of us brought our assistive devices because we wanted to remain anonymous, and we feared that we would be treated worse if we brought them. So I think it's less about the police knowing that we were first years with disabilities, and more about them choosing not to consider the possibility. And if they did consider the possibility, they didn’t care about how much danger they could be putting someone in. 

CG: You were also pepper sprayed, right?

AS: Yeah. Pepper spray sucks. The pepper spray started when students were by the front entrance of the hotel. We had moved between different entrances trying to get in, and there was a line of students in front of the police crossing arms so we couldn't be knocked over, and we were just slowly inching forward. Then at one point, a group of police officers got distracted by something, and they moved, so we started to get closer to the entrance, which is when somebody pepper sprayed me. And the officers might have been like, “y'all are getting too close,” or might have asked us to move back, but it was really hard to hear anything, and there was no audible warning that force would be used. So I was pepper sprayed, and another first year was pepper sprayed. Some other people were too, but I got the worst of it. And… Can I explain for a second how shitty being pepper sprayed is? 

CG: Yeah of course. Were you wearing anything that covered your face?

AS: We were all covering our faces, but that didn't do much. Only one person was smart enough to bring goggles. But,they sprayed it in my eyes and it was one of the most painful things I’ve ever experienced. It's so hard to get out. We had someone there who's trained in how to help people who get hurt at protests, and they poured several bottles of water into my eyes at the protest, and it still took hours before that started to help. Because you can inhale it, and if you inhale it, it can pose serious risks to your respiratory health. And it's not just hurting your eyes and your lungs, it's literally a contaminant. I had to wash my whole body with dish soap because that's the only thing that gets it off. We had to get rid of any clothing that had been exposed because it can infect your food. It’s designed to be as painful as possible.

CG: What has the administration's response been in the wake of this incident? Have any administrators threatened to take disciplinary action against you or any other students who were involved? Are any students facing legal action?

AS: We were pretty well-prepared; everybody was covering their faces, so at this point, no one has been identified. 

CG: Did the fact that you were all working really hard to remain anonymous impact your ability to seek medical attention in the aftermath of the incident? 

AS: Yeah, we couldn't go to student health. A lot of people were scared about going to Mercy because they have a bad track record with students. But I feel like the biggest reason why people didn’t feel like they could go is because they shut down; they put Mercy Hospital on lockdown on Friday. 

CG: What do you want other Oberlin students to know about the confrontation that occurred on Friday? In your opinion, what are the implications of this incident for the broader Oberlin community?

AS: What I want students to know is that this was a nonviolent act of civil disobedience carried out by students, and the police escalated the situation largely to protect private property. I want students to know that unfortunately, Oberlin doesn't seem to care much about student safety because protecting private property is Oberlin's top priority. Oberlin likes to brand itself as a liberal institution, the most liberal institution, as a result of its radical history, but it's just not that radical anymore. This was a protest about divestment from apartheid and from genocide, and Oberlin responded by letting its students get hurt without defending us. Oberlin doesn't care about genocide or about apartheid. Oberlin cares about money. That's what I want students to know.