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Santa Monica College officials in California have launched an investigation into a raucous student protest at a board of trustees meeting in which campus police used pepper spray on demonstrators, sending three of them to a hospital, the college president said Wednesday.

The students weren't allowed into the overflowing meeting room Tuesday evening and were demonstrating in a hallway against a summer pilot program creating two tiers of tuition when the pepper spraying incident occurred, said Paul Alvarez Jr., the multimedia editor for the campus newspaper who videotaped the incident.

Three people were taken to a hospital, and about 30 other students needed treatment for pepper spray, said Santa Monica Fire Department Capt. Judah Mitchell. The fire department set up a decontamination unit that consisted of a fire hose with clear water, Mitchell said. Santa Monica is a coastal city adjacent to Los Angeles.

A number of the protesters "engaged in unlawful conduct," such as setting off fire alarms, but campus police "exercised restraint and made no arrests," college President Chui Tsang said in a statement.

He said the protesters in the corridor chose not to enter an overflow room. In all, about 100 people protested the board meeting, he said. "Unfortunately, a number of bystanders, including college staff, students and other police personnel were affected," Tsang said.

"Santa Monica College regrets that a group of people chose to disrupt a public meeting in an unlawful manner," he added.

Alvarez, the student journalist at The Corsair campus newspaper, called the spraying incident an injustice.

"That made everything more chaotic than it should have been," Alvarez said.

A 4-year-old girl was among those stung by the pepper spray, Alvarez said.

More at http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/04/us/california-college-pepper-spray/index
.html?hpt=hp_bn1

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