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Student Protestor Awaits Arraignment in Pa.

by Ben Gleason

By the time most Oberlin College students step foot inside Mudd Library for an uneventful Saturday cram session, Senior Laurel Paget-Seekins will stand before a judge in Pennsylvania.

Paget-Seekins, the founder of the School of the Americas Watch, a campus organization, will face five misdemeanor charges at her arraignment, which takes place tomorrow in Philadelphia. Paget-Seekins was arrested at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia on July 31. She is charged with obstructing the justice, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, obstructing a highway and conspiracy to obstruct a highway.

She said, �I was the very first person arrested at the Republican National Convention, which was very lucky because�I was only held for 11 hours, and got out without bail. I was lucky in that we were treated very well by the Philadelphia police and prison system.� After they were arrested, the group chose to give their names to the police, cooperating as part of their nonviolent style of protest, Paget-Seekins said. �We were acting in a spirit of non-violence in which you try to win over the people you encounter. We were telling everyone why we were there, and we actually got a lot of support from them.�

Paget-Seekins was arrested along with eight others, including Oberlin senior Rebecca Johnson, for participating in a demonstration that demanded the closing down of the School of the Americas.

According to Paget-Seekins, �The School of the Americas is a U.S. Army training school for military personnel in Ft. Benning, GA. Since it has started it has trained over 60,000 Latin American military personnel, and, unfortunately many of them are known human rights abusers. They�re responsible for the massacres and incarcerations of indigenous peoples, union organizers and church workers in their own countries.�

The protest movement that began �with a couple of people outside the gates� has swelled to the 12,000 in attendance at the base last November, according to Paget-Seekins. Oberlin�s School of the Americas Watch sent a contingent of about 80 people to the base.

Though Paget-Seekins acknowledges her role in the organization�s success, she makes certain to credit junior Jackie Downing. Downing is on the National Advisory Board for the School of the Americas Watch. Paget-Seekins said, �Basically myself and Jackie have also dedicated three years to this, and to building it up at Oberlin and nationally. Oberlin has a lot of respect from other groups. Everywhere I go, people are happy that we�re doing this work.�

For Paget-Seekins, there could not have been a more perfect location to protest �that the Republicans in Congress have consistently voted to fund� the School of the Americas than in Philadelphia, said Paget-Seekins. �We were trying to make this an issue, that�s why we were there.� In addition, she wanted her protest to send a message of solidarity to her peers.

She said, �There were 10 people who already had a ban-and-barload during that action who received from three months to a year in federal prison and they started their jail sentences July 31, which is when I did my action in Philadelphia. It was a show of solidarity for the people who were arrested in November.�

For her part, Paget-Seekins remains unconcerned about the charges she faces. She is confident that her lawyer, the former Attorney General of Pennsylvania, who is representing all nine Oberlin students pro bono, will be able to have the charges dropped. She said, �I�m not worried at all about Philadelphia. I didn�t do much of anything,� adding, �It was nice of them to put my court date on a Saturday.�

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Copyright © 2000, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 129, Number 2, September 15, 2000

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