The Students for Justice in Palestine group at Penn State is calling on the university to take action against students who vandalized their memorial on the HUB lawn last week.
They placed thousands of white flags on the lawn to represent people killed in Gaza over the last year. Videos shared on social media show students pulling out those flags, riding a bike through them, and yelling slurs at student organizers.
"The University is saddened by the hateful actions and destruction being shared in videos online of students who disrespected a memorial on the HUB Lawn at the University Park campus," Penn State officials said in an online statement. "This type of behavior has no place on our campuses or anywhere in our society."
That statement goes on to say the Office of Student Accountability and Conflict Response is investigating, and any student found in violation of the Student Code of Conduct will be held accountable.
Organizers with Students for Justice in Palestine said they appreciate that the university is saddened, but want more details on what actions will be taken to prevent behavior like this.
"The desecration of the memory of murdered Palestinians and subsequent hate speech creates an unsafe environment on our campus for Palestinian students, and we hope that the Penn State University takes the proper steps to address and remedy this," an unnamed organizer said in a written response to WPSU.
On Monday, Penn State officials said the numbers of bias reports on campus have recently increased. Officials say they've seen an increase in hateful and malicious comments online regarding the conflict in the Middle East.
