Jewish Cooper Union students spoke to The New York Post on Thursday, a day after anti-Jew protesters barricaded them in the school library.
Taylor Roslyn Lent, a sophomore chemical engineering student, said she and almost 50 other students stayed in the library after an employee locked the door.
The rally should have stayed outside the school, but the students, around 20 to 70, pushed through security, where they should have scanned their IDs.
Who even knows if all of them were students?
This is scary:
“I can say that I felt unsafe and unprotected,” Lent, a chemical engineering major, told The Post Thursday. “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.”Lent said she and other Jewish students inside the library feared for their safety as protesters — including some carrying Palestinian flags and signs reading “Zionism Hands Off Our Universities” — descended on the building.—Of the 50 students inside, a small group were Jews, and they “were full of fear, some crying,” Lent recalled Thursday.The Post reported Wednesday there was a group of 11 Jewish students in the library.
Lent said, “I mainly fear for my safety on campus and in my school buildings.”
A senior, who wanted to remain anonymous, said the protesters yelled “antisemitic rhetoric” as they taunted the students:
“When they started banging on the door, my heart started pounding,” the student told The Post Wednesday. “I was crying. I think if the doors weren’t locked — I don’t know what would have happened.”
Another student said the protesters yelled, “Long live the Intifada.”
Cooper Union alumnus Solomon Rosenzweig’s 22-year-old-daughter was at the library:
Solomon Rosenzweig, an alumnus of Cooper Union, said his 22-year-old daughter — a senior at the university whom he requested not be identified due to safety fears — was also inside the library as dozens of demonstrators chanted “Palestine will be free.”Rosenzweig, 48, of Brooklyn, said his daughter was “upset and shaken” following Wednesday’s harrowing incident. The civil engineering major was unavailable for comment Thursday while waiting to consult with an attorney.“I’ve gone and donated money back to the school because I appreciated the education and I thought that my daughter was going to wind up with the same. Only instead, the school allowed my daughter to be at risk.“I know she has a midterm she’s been trying to work on,” he said. “And her ability to process has been severely degraded.”The father said his continued support of the school is now in question.“My future donations depend on how the school responds and deals with this,” he said. “[My daughter] was looking forward to going for her master’s degree there and at this point, I’m not sure she’s going to do that.”
To make matters worse, Chief of Patrol John Chell completely contradicted everyone’s claims.
Chell probably did this to save his butt because students and parents want to know why it took officers so long to respond:
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 said. “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.
Cooper Union President Laura Sparks is no better. She tried to downplay it as a “peaceful protest,” and nothing happened:
Messages seeking comment from Cooper Union officials were not returned Thursday. University president Laura Sparks addressed the “peaceful protest” in a message, saying demonstrators moved inside the building at about 3:45 p.m Wednesday.“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.
Gee, could it be because one mother begged the school for weeks to protect the Jewish students? The school did nothing: “But nothing happened. They still permitted the Hamas narrative to be expressed. They permitted the Jewish kids to be put in danger.”
The parents already hired a lawyer, Gerard Filitti: “Students felt afraid for their safety. They feared for their lives.”
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