Law Student’s Palestine Protest Prompts Harsh Response from Main Grounds
Dozens of Law School and UVA students, faculty, and staff came out to protest the United States’ involvement in the war in Gaza last Friday, February 14. The protesters arrived early on a cold morning, holding signs reading “REFUSE ILLEGAL ORDERS” and “GAZA RESETTLEMENT = WAR CRIME.”
Students and faculty protesting near the Law School’s D3 parking lot last Friday, February 14.
The protesters were positioned in front of the D3 Parking Lot near the Judge-Advocate General’s Legal Center and School, also known as the JAG School. Kirk Wolff ’26, who initiated the protest, explained that his military service inspired him to send a message to JAG officers.
“When I saw President Trump’s proposed resettlement of Gaza . . . I decided that I wanted to speak out against that as a veteran and somebody who has taken the oath these JAGs have also taken,” said Wolff. “I wanted to remind them of their moral and legal obligations not to be complicit in genocide and in following unlawful orders.”
Human rights groups have noted that forcibly removing more than two million Palestinians from Gaza, as Trump has proposed, violates international law and the Geneva Conventions.[1]
Last week’s protest wasn’t Wolff’s first demonstration at the D3 lot. A week prior, on Friday, February 7, Wolff sat in the same spot, studying and displaying his protest signs. But Wolff’s study session was cut short by University Police.
Kirk Wolff approached by UVA Police and a PACE representative near the D3 parking lot.
“I came out at about 7:30 a.m. and set up. At about 7:50 the first police car rolled by really slowly, and then another one about 20 minutes later,” Wolff said. “A total of seven police cars and motorcycles came by.” That’s when Wolff said UVA officials threatened him with expulsion, arrest, and a ban from campus.
In a video Wolff shared with the Law Weekly, a UVA police officer and a representative from PACE—the Policy, Accountability, and Critical Events unit of Student Affairs—tell Wolff to leave. “We can’t have you here,” the PACE representative says, suggesting that Wolff can use an online portal to “reserve a table” at which he can protest.
Wolff identifies himself as a law student and says he’s allowed to study there. “You’re trying to intimidate me because you don’t like what I’m saying, and that’s illegal,” Wolff says.
The PACE representative then reads Wolff a “final warning,” instructing him to comply and leave or face a four-year ban from UVA property. Finally, Wolff tells the PACE representative that he will call a law professor, and the video stops.
Wolff explained that he called Professor Kelly Orians and put her on speakerphone. At that point, the PACE representative left to call her boss, Wolff said. They then told Wolff he was free to stay.
UVA’s official protest policies allow students to “utilize outdoor University property for public speaking and distribution of literature so long as they do not impede normal University operations, obstruct pedestrian or vehicular traffic, restrict equal access to the University’s outdoor spaces, or violate University policies or law.”[2]
The strip of land between the D3 lot and the Law School where Wolff was stationed is University property and lies outside the posted JAG School area. The D3 lot is designated parking for law students.
On Saturday after the incident, Wolff met with the Law School’s Student Affairs office. “They were really apologetic and really kind about it. They had no idea any of this was going on.” Wolff said he still doesn’t know who called PACE and the UVA Police.
Meanwhile, in an email, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Marsh Pattie invited Wolff to meet at his office in the Rotunda and discuss the incident. Professors Orians and Thomas Frampton attended the meeting along with Wolff.
Wolff said that during the meeting Main Grounds Student Affairs admitted that PACE had violated University policy during the February 7 encounter. Wolff said he asked Student Affairs to publicly clarify that University policy allows protests at the D3 lot. But Wolff was rebuffed.
“I just want the school to commit and state that people are allowed to do what I was doing and to protest what I was protesting, and they refused to do that,” said Wolff. “This topic is so scary for people to talk about. What we are doing is unconscionable, and we’re all silent and scared because of the environment the school has made.”
In a statement to the Law Weekly, a UVA spokesperson confirmed that Wolff’s protest did not violate University policies but denied any wrongdoing by UVA officials. “No University policies were violated by University officials or the individual in question,” the spokesperson wrote, referring to Wolff. “It is accurate that a student affairs representative approached [Wolff] to gather information about their expressive activities on Grounds. Once it was determined that [Wolff] was affiliated with the University, his expressive activity continued that day, as well as the following Monday.”
“We believe the University’s many statements already convey the important right to protest, including the free speech materials provided to each student as part of the annual student update form,” the statement continued, referring to the Board of Visitors' Statements on Free Expression and Free Inquiry and the University’s Protest Policies and Resources.
Responding to the University's statement, Professor Frampton, who attended Wolff's meeting with Vice President Pattie, had these choice words: “If I were inclined toward conspiratorial thinking, I’d conclude some subversive within the University Counsel’s office is desperate to get sued and lose. But they’re probably just fucking stupid.”
For his part, Wolff agrees that his protest complied with University policy. “If you were to come up with a protest that complied with the rules of the University, it would be what I was doing—silently sitting on a property that I’m allowed to be on, not obstructing anything.”
Wolff, who is white, also lamented what seemed like preferential treatment from University officials. “It’s kind of shocking because other students have been advocating for this. And Black and Brown students—they did not receive the kind of care that I have.”
No University Police or PACE officials intervened in the second protest on February 14. Wolff said he plans to continue protesting at the D3 Lot next Friday.
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tya2us@virginia.edu
[1] Lee Keath, Trump doubles down on plan to empty Gaza. This is what he has said and what’s at stake, AP News, apnews.com/article/trump-gaza-plan-palestinians-israel-3f12eb51869da2221afbb22b0bcf47ba (Feb. 12, 2025).
[2] UVA Protest Policies & Resources, freespeech.virginia.edu/protest-policies-resources.
