Protester disrupts homecoming hockey game and does not get hurt – The Catalyst
October 14, 2022 | NEWS | By Michael Braithwaite | Artwork by Sydney Morris
On the evening of Friday, October 7, a protester took to the ice at Ed Robson Arena late in the first period of Colorado College’s Homecoming Hockey game against the University of Alaska in Anchorage. As arena security attempted to escort them off the ice, the protester appeared to ram an object into their necks and had to be forcibly subdued and removed from the building.
Several observers who witnessed the incident up close reported that the protester had a small pair of scissors in their hand which they were using to try and pierce their necks. Statements from CC campus security director Cathy Buckley and athletic director Lesley Irvine after the game confirmed that no one was injured during the ordeal.
An email sent by President L. Song Richardson on Saturday morning confirmed that the protester was not a CC student and had been taken to Memorial Hospital after the incident to receive professional treatment.
The protest was part of a series of Homecoming weekend protests around the Colorado College campus, including eye-catching messages left on campus in sidewalk chalk and a collective student movement to illustrate the shortcomings of the college response to mental health crises on block plan.
While some students and families at the Ed Robson Arena on Friday night speculated that the protester’s message was related to CC’s lack of response to recent student deaths, those close enough to the ice to hear the protester determined that their message was something else entirely.
Some observers noted that the protester was shouting in a language other than English, making it difficult for many in attendance to understand what message they were trying to convey. Zoraiz Zafar ’25, who was sitting in Mike Slade’s student section at the time of the protest, was able to catch some of the words that were shouted.
“We have heard the expression ‘azadi’, which means ‘freedom’ in many languages in South Asia and the subcontinent,” Zafar said. “As EMS took them out, we heard them singing something about freedom and Iran.”
Zafar noted that the post likely had something to do with ongoing protests for women’s rights in Iran. These protests began when 22-year-old Mahsa Ahmini was killed by Iranian police on September 16 for not wearing the traditional Islamic headscarf in public, and have so far claimed around 185 lives at the hands of ISIS forces. Iranian orders.
Family members and alumni who were at CC for the reunion weekend were shocked to see such an incident occur. Hayden Cogswell ’20 was sitting behind the protester in Section 105 when he saw the protester climbing over the glass and onto the ice.
“They sat in front of us and got up just at an intermission or a break, jumped over the glass, [and] landed on the opposition bench,” Cogswell said. “It looked like they were pointing at the student section with their fists raised and shouting something even after being restrained.”
“It was disturbing to watch,” said a parent who was seated near where the incident happened.
Many students left the arena after witnessing the incident. The match then resumed after a 15-minute intermission.
No personal information about the protester has been released at this time.
