College Students (and a 4-Year-Old) Pepper Sprayed Protesting Tuition Hike

DASHIELL BENNETT
The Atlantic Wire
Apr. 04, 2012

A Board of Trustees meeting at Santa Monica City College turned chaotic on Tuesday night when protesting students were pepper sprayed, indoors, by police trying to control the unruly crowd. Among those caught in fracas was a four-year-old girl who was at the protest with her family and was reportedly hit in the face by the pepper spray.

The college made national news recently when it announced a new tuition plan that would raise the prices of individual classes based on popularity, driving the cost of a class that would normally run around $46 a credit to as much as $180 per credit per semester. That new plan was on the scheduled agenda for last night's public board meeting, prompting about 200 students to marched on the meeting to voice their protests. Unfortunately, the meeting was held in a room that only holds about 60 people, forcing most of the protesters into an overflow room. They later tried to force their way into the already crowded main room, creating a wild scene in the narrow and crowded hallway outside. That's when campus police responded with the spray.

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