Thread by @Jack_Petocz

I'm Jack Petocz, a 19 y/o activist that's been fighting for marginalized people for years.

Yesterday, I was expelled from Vanderbilt University for peacefully protesting the genocide in Palestine.

Vanderbilt will let sexual assaulters walk free, but expel passionate organizers.

For months, administration has suppressed student voices fighting for Palestine.

This includes hyper-surveillance, discrimination towards our SJP and JVP chapters, and cancelling a student-led referendum to divest Vanderbilt Student Government funds from mass slaughter.

After exhausting every other avenue, 27 students engaged in a sit-in at our chancellor’s office.

During this time, Vandy denied us of our basic humanity, restricting access to food, water, restrooms, or medical care.

All the while, being cornered by a wall of police & admin.

To terminate the protest, Vanderbilt arrested 4 students, including me, and forcibly removed 20+ others with police intervention.

We were evicted from campus until Vanderbilt had decided our fate for the ultimate crime of caring as 33,000 people have been murdered.

Yesterday, they released disciplinary decisions, expelling 3 students, suspending 1, and putting 22 others on probation.

This is how a school claiming to champion “free speech” reacts to students rallying together in compassion & love for those outside Vanderbilt's ivory towers.

I came to Vanderbilt with the dream of escaping the rampant bigotry and institutional repression I experienced in the Deep South.

That dream has soured.

Make no mistake, we will be appealing and attempting to rectify this obscene and undue punishment.

Vanderbilt the choice is yours. Will you repeat your abysmal history with social movements, or let a teenager with a previously clean record continue their education?

Follow the Vanderbilt Divest Coalition for updates and calls to action.
linktr.ee/vanderbiltdive…