Students pepper-sprayed, entrances shut down during pro-Palestine protest at City College
Photo: A CCNY Public Safety officer faces a group of protestors at the gate on 138 Street and Amsterdam Avenue // Leon Orlov-Sullivan for The Campus
Leon Orlov-Sullivan
Updated 11:52p.m. EDT, April 24, 2025
During the chaos surrounding a pro-Palestinian protest and CCNY Public Safety’s response at City College on Thursday, April 24, a group of 10-20 people was pepper-sprayed by a Public Safety officer, entrances to campus were closed, and one CCNY student was arrested.
The protest, which was peaceful and started at 1:30 p.m. on the quad– the location of the CUNY pro-Palestinian encampment last April– attracted a large Public Safety presence from the start. The protest then moved to just outside the entrance of the NAC. Protestors chanted “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” referring to the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, and “disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest,” referring to demands for CUNY administration to disclose and divest from investments into companies involved with Israel.
Shortly after pepper-spraying a mixed group of protestors and uninvolved students and employees, a Public Safety officer tells a crowd to “get back” while brandishing a canister of pepper spray // Video shared with The Campus by an anonymous employee
At 2:12 p.m., CCNY Public Safety officer Anthony Pestana pepper-sprayed a group of people at the entrance to City College on 135 Street and Convent Avenue. According to a CCNY employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the group of people was a mix of protestors and unaffiliated people. The employee, who was on their way to the North Academic Center and was not involved in the protests, told The Campus that they flushed pepper spray out of the eyes of a student they knew, describing the experience as “heartbreaking.”
Several entrances to campus were closed, with the gates on Amsterdam Avenue locked shut and Public Safety intermittently closing the entrances on Convent Avenue, leaving many students and employees confused as to how or whether they could leave or enter campus.
Sarah Applewhite (‘27), a jazz vocals major at City College, told The Campus that she was barred from entering campus to get to class by Public Safety. Applewhite said that with her was an employee who needed to access her medication in the building she worked in. Applewhite reported that Public Safety officers told the employee “I don't know what to tell you, nobody's allowed,” and that it wasn’t clear whether there were alternate entrances.
The Office of the Provost sent an email to CCNY faculty, students, and staff at 4:04 p.m. saying “Please note that all scheduled classes are still being held. There are no cancellations.”
These events come after a protest on February 27 against Kathy Hochul’s presence on campus after the governor ordered CUNY to remove a job posting for Palestinian Studies at Hunter College. 3 CCNY students were arrested at that protest. In April 2024, Public Safety officers pepper-sprayed a group of protestors in what NYCITY News Service, a publication associated with the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, identified as a flashpoint of the night the CUNY encampment was taken down.
Public Safety declined to comment. President Vincent Boudreau declined to comment at this time.
