Jonathan Leader's letter about the protest removal

by Jonathan Leader

Jonathan Leader, Personal Professional Development (PPD) unit leader at London College of Communication, witnessed the attempted ejection of students blocking the main lecture theatre on November 11.

Since the event, he has written a letter outlining his concern about how it was handled.

 

Jonathan's letter in full:

I am writing this piece to express my deepest concerns regarding events that took place during the afternoon of 11 November 2009 at the London College of Communication.

Shortly after 1.00pm I was on my way to Reprographics on the ground floor just passing Reception when a student approached me and asked me if I was aware of what was happening outside the Main Lecture Theatre.

I indicated that I was not aware and accompanied her in the direction of the MLT to observe, initially, a group of students standing in front of me and beyond them by the entrance doors to the MLT two security guards bending over three other students sitting on the floor with their backs against the lecture theatre doors.

As I approached I had a clear view of both security guards physically starting to manhandle the students sitting on the floor in order, presumably, to shift them out of the way. In a raised voice I said ‘excuse me, what do you think you are doing’.

The security guards stopped immediately and turned around, somewhat surprised to see me questioning their behaviour. They informed me that they were, indeed, trying to move the students out of the way because they were barring access to the MLT and they asked who I was. I refused to say explaining that this was irrelevant and I asked who they were.

I noticed that the guard nearest to me was using his right hand to shield his identity tag. An exchange between me and this guard then ensued in which I stated that what they were doing constituted assault and that they were not entitled to touch the students. The guard nervously denied having touched anybody but I told him I had seen them both do this and that we were surrounded by witnesses.

I informed both guards that if they continued I would personally see that they were charged with assault. The two security personnel clearly did not know how to proceed, which was the most worrying aspect of happening and they actually asked me what they could to do, suggesting they did no have a clear brief.

I told them there was nothing they could do because the students were protesting peacefully and none of them was posing any threat to anybody else; they were not inciting fellow students or staff but just expressing opposition however inconvenient that might be.

After a couple of minutes the security guards left the area and I went to reception and phoned Les Claridge to ask him to attend the scene, which he did within minutes.

I will not go into further details about the events that subsequently unfolded during the next couple of hours. My purpose is simply to express my utmost concerns, my disgust in fact, about the outrageous behaviour I have just described. Is it appropriate or reasonable for an academic institution that devotes itself to, indeed prides itself on communication in a wide variety of forms, to populate its ground floor with a posse of “security” personnel, burly individuals clad in black, bloated by padded bomber jackets and sporting earpieces and microphones?

I feel intimidated by these individuals and, quite frankly, I feel less, rather than more secure by their presence, and if I feel like this, with years of experience both inside and outside Higher Education, how can our students feel?

What message was being conveyed to them on, of all days, Armistice Day, a day on which we remember and honour the fallen in violent conflict? How can we be confident, given the presence of glorified bouncers, who I would expect to see standing on the doorstep of a West End nightclub but certainly not within the groves of academe, people who are not trained to think, that every effort is being made to communicate with our students and to respect their freedom to demonstrate peacefully?

At 4.30 in the afternoon I began teaching my ‘Elective, Concept, Critique and Communication’, in which I emphasise, on a weekly basis, how fundamental the capacity to think critically is to what it means to be a responsible human being.

Is it not the case that those of our students who are currently protesting are doing precisely this, thinking critically and demonstrating that they are, indeed, responsible human beings with a point to make because they do not feel that their questions about the closure of courses and the dismissal of teaching staff etc are being answered?

Their protests are surely legitimate and, all importantly, peaceful. If we deny them this and at every opportunity try to snuff out their opposition to proposed changes in the College, about which they feel they have not been properly informed let alone consulted, then however frustrating or inconvenient their actions may be perceived as being, what message are we sending them, what are we saying about their/our freedom to express concerns, their/our freedom to question and to demand answers to questions?

There may well be wider security issues about which I am unaware and I would not deny that in the current wider context it would be utterly neglectful, to say the least, not to put in place measures to try to safeguard the wellbeing of both staff and students at the College.

However, the presence of the guards I have described and their readiness to manhandle students who are simply not prepared to accede to their demand/requests I find deeply disturbing. The presence of such people strutting around the premises and using, what I believe, is unreasonable force, is not befitting of this or any other Higher Education establishment where peaceful protest is a basic freedom.

I would urge our Head of College and the Senior Management Team, to take a step back and think carefully about what they are allowing to happen, in this respect, at LCC. If business models and mission statements can trump the basic freedoms that are intrinsic to the pulse of an academic institution, then I truly believe that our College vision is in danger of becoming so narrow that we stray into extremely precarious territory.

Jonathan W. Leader
PPD Unit Leader
Faculty of Media
London College of Communication
     
12 November 2009

See also:

Strike threat looms at UAL

Sit-in students may face disciplinary action

Protest at LCC widen

Police called to Hub sit-in