Across campus from volunteers honoring Martin Luther King Jr., law enforcement officers armed with assault rifles trained to prepare for a Virginia Tech-style tragedy.
The SWAT training collided head-on with King’s practice of nonviolent social change, student and faculty protesters said.
“I don’t think this should be happening on our campus, especially today,” said Sky Wilson, a member of the Washington State University Vancouver Social and Environmental Justice Club. “I see this as complete opposition to the celebration of Martin Luther King.”
Students and faculty protested by occupying a multimedia classroom building they’d been asked to vacate to make way for the training, which was moved to the campus’s administration building. The training had been in the works for more than a year, but students and staff say they learned of it last week.