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LEWISTON — A group of Bates College students are planning a protest Friday calling for administrators “to defund and disarm campus safety” officers.
An Instagram post by the Bates Leftist Coalition on Thursday.
The Bates Leftist Coalition said the 1 p.m. walk-out and rally is meant to “reemphasize our ongoing commitment and persistence to the work of disarming, defunding and reimaging” the Campus Safety Department.
The move follows a decision by the college this week to take away the batons carried by its security officers, who are not otherwise armed.
That decision followed a petition by the leftist coalition and the Bates Restorative and Transformative Justice Coalition, signed by 18 groups and 546 people, that called for the removal of both batons and handcuffs from officers and to oppose equipping them with body cameras.