To the Editors:

Protesting is an Oberlin tradition that is almost as old as the College, and Thursday, March 20 — Day X — was an example of that tradition at its best, as well as an illustration of the things we have yet to learn about protesting.
In the protest policy that was passed by the General Faculty last fall, the College affirmed the fact that protesters must not violate the rights of others to engage in teaching and learning. While the protest on Day X respected that right when it came to those who wanted to remain in their classes at the College, that right was not extended to Oberlin High School students whose education was interrupted that afternoon by the protest.
I have been asked by the administration of the City and the Public Schools to convey the following information to students who may be contemplating similar protests in the future. First, by law, public schools are not public property in the same sense as other public grounds and buildings. Those who do not have direct business with the schools are not permitted to come onto school grounds — or into school buildings — without permission. Although the Superintendent did permit protesters to come onto school grounds on Day X, common sense suggests that this permission did not extend to banging on the windows of the school or to other behavior which prevented learning from taking place. The school administration was within its rights — indeed, within its responsibilities — to prevent protesters from entering the High School that afternoon.
Second, public school administrators are prevented by law from permitting students to leave school grounds before the end of the school day unless they are released to the care of a parent or guardian. To have permitted a full-scale walk-out at Oberlin High School would have constituted a violation of the administrators’ legal responsibilities.
Third, the interruption of instruction in a public school constitutes a violation of the Ohio Revised Code which (in part) defines “disorderly conduct” as a gathering of four or more people “with the purpose to hinder, impede, or obstruct the orderly process of administration or instruction at an educational institution” [ORC 2917.03].
Time and again over the years, Oberlin College has asserted the right to — indeed the importance of — protest within this learning environment. At the same time, we have also insisted that such rights need to be exercised with an understanding of the rights of others which may be jeopardized in the course of a protest whose organizers are insufficiently aware of the reasonable boundaries of their actions.

—Peter Goldsmith
Dean of Students