CAMBRIDGE, MA —Hundreds at Harvard Law School joined students across the country Monday wearing black and walking out of class. The reason? To protest the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh and to show their support for the two women who have accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault.
“To see so many members of Harvard come together to support Kavanaugh’s victims was truly inspiring. This was a walkout in solidarity with all victims of sexual assault and proves that the Harvard community believes ‘Time’s Up,'” Nina Elkadi, a first-year Harvard College student, told Patch in a message.
The protest comes right after four Harvard Law School students co-wrote an op-ed in the Harvard Law Record calling on the law school to investigate sexual assault claims by Christine Blasey Ford, who was the first to step forward and accuse Kavanaugh, and reconsider bringing him back onto campus as a teacher.
Kavanaugh was scheduled to teach a course at Harvard this winter called, ” The Supreme Court since 2005,” according to the University’s website.
“Will Harvard Law School take seriously the credible allegation of Kavanaugh’s sexual assault against a young woman before he is allowed to continue teaching young women?” Molly Coleman, Vail Kohnert-Yount, Jake Meiseles and Sejal Singh wrote. “Or will Harvard allow him to teach students without further inquiry — and continue paying him our tuition money?”
In 2018, he earned $27,490 for 9 days of teaching,”according to the Law Record, which links to a copy of Kavanaugh’s 2017 financial disclosure report published by the Center for Responsive Politics.
The four students are members of the Harvard Law School Pipeline Parity Project, which has the goal of ending harassment and discrimination in the legal field, and helped organize Monday’s protest along with other Harvard Law School groups. Nearly 300 people indicated they planned to join the walkout. More than 200 others indicated on the Facebook invite they were interested.
Meanwhile dozens of people protesting Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination were arrested outside the office of Sen.Collins of Maine on Monday, the Associated Press reported.
Ford is set to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. Ford claims that Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed during the early 1980’s when they were both teenagers at a party and groped her while the two were “stumbling drunk.” A second woman, identified as Deborah Ramirez, claimed that Kavanaugh exposed himself at a dorm room party at Yale University during his freshman year.
Kavanaugh has denied both allegations.
Both women have asked the FBI to investigate.
Read this too>> New Kavanaugh Allegation Prompts Protest At Yale
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Photo credit: Nina Elkadi a first-year Harvard College student originally from Iowa City, IA. Courtesy.