THOSE DISRUPTIVE STUDENTS SHOULD BE DISCIPLINED, AND PERHAPS SUED: U of Texas Backs Professor in Dispute on Disrupted Event.

The University of Texas at Austin announced Wednesday that it found no wrongdoing by a professor in his actions in November when a lecture he organized was disrupted by pro-Palestinian students. The students interrupted the start of the lecture, which was on the Israeli military, with speeches of their own in which they criticized the Israeli military. The professor, Ami Pedahzur, then attempted to regain order and criticized the protesters, some of whom filed complaints accusing him of violating their rights and discriminating against them.

The university’s announcement Wednesday said that an investigation found the accusations against Pedahzur to be unsubstantiated. The university said policy bars it from releasing full reports on charges found to be unsubstantiated.

Protesting a speaker is fine. Stopping a speaker from speaking is disruption and should be punished. Abuse of process is wrongdoing and should be punished as well. And the off-campus organizations backing the students — and there absolutely are off-campus organizations backing the students — have deep enough pockets to be worth suing.