Current and former University of Texas at Dallas students are suing school leaders and police officers over their arrests while protesting the war in Gaza and for allegedly suspending the university's chapter of a pro-Palestinian student organization.
The lawsuit, filed in the federal Northern District of Texas Friday, accuses UT Dallas police officers of using excessive force while arresting students last year. The plaintiffs also accuse police, along with former university president Richard Benson, current president Prabhas Moghe and other school officials, of maliciously prosecuting the students and violating their First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
"Through this lawsuit, we, along with the five other plaintiffs, are holding UTD accountable for their relentless attempts to stifle our movement," the Students for Justice in Palestine Dallas, which a spokesperson said is no longer associated with UTD, wrote in a statement. "We have watched these policies, laws, and tactics develop in real time as our university has collaborated with the state to target campus organizing in an attempt to wipe Palestine off campuses statewide, yet we continue to resist."
KERA News has reached out to UTD for comment and will update this story with any response.
Tensions rose between UTD students, faculty and university officials after Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, left more than a thousand Israelis dead and dozens held hostage. Israel’s retaliation led to more than two years of conflict in Gaza that killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
UTD issued a statement in support of Israel shortly after Oct. 7, which pro-Palestinian students and faculty criticized. Pro-Palestinian students also called on the UT system to divest from manufacturers like Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and others who have provided weapons to Israel.
Protests erupted across Texas and the country as students made similar demands of their universities and were arrested during demonstrations.
The suit comes two years after law enforcement arrested 21 students, faculty and others at a campus encampment calling for UTD to divest. Those included Nouran Abusaad, Casey Choi and Mousa Najjar, who are now UTD alumni and plaintiffs in Friday’s lawsuit.
More students were arrested last year and banned from campus and their own graduations for pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Among them were plaintiffs Chengyang Zhou and Belal Elseisy.
Graduation arrests
Najjar and Abusaad were released on bond but banned from campus except to attend classes and class-related activities. Najjar attended his graduation two weeks later, believing it was a class-related activity, and held up a Palestinian flag with the words “divest from death” written on it when he walked across the stage.
School officials escorted Najjar offstage. He was later arrested for allegedly violating the conditions of his bond.
Choi, who walked the stage the same day, was arrested for criminal trespass for attending his graduation, also believing it was a class-related activity, according to the suit.
Abusaad graduated with her master’s degree May 19, 2025, and also held up a “divest from death” flag. Abusaad was issued a trespass notice and was told she wasn’t allowed on the UTD campus, according to the suit.
Twelve of those indicted on misdemeanor charges for the encampment, including Abusaad, avoided trial by opting into a Collin County diversion program last year.
According to the lawsuit, Elseisy, Zhou and other students walked out of a UTD spring 2025 commencement ceremony May 16, 2025, to protest UTD’s investment in companies linked to the Gaza war during then-president Benson’s speech. The students were confronted by UTD police officers who escorted them off campus, the suit says.
Zhou blew a bugle outside after leaving the ceremony, and the suit alleges UTD Police Lt. Eric Willadsen charged toward Zhou, yanked him by his backpack, dragged him backwards and put him in a chokehold. Zhou couldn’t breathe, the suit states.
The plaintiffs accuse Willadsen of violating the UT system’s manual on use of force, which classifies chokeholds as “lethal/deadly force” and can only be used in certain circumstances, according to the suit.
Willadsen executed an arrest warrant at Zhou’s apartment two weeks later for felony assault on a peace officer — of which Willadsen was the alleged victim — and misdemeanor disruption of a meeting, according to the suit. The warrant claimed Zhou’s bugle playing was an assault on Willadsen’s ears, causing hearing loss and tinnitus.
The Dallas County District Attorney’s Office rejected that case and did not present it to a grand jury, the suit states. Zhou’s misdemeanor case is ongoing.
UTD allegedly notified Elseisy while he attended Abusaad’s graduation that he would be temporarily banned from campus for his participation in the walkout days earlier, preventing him from attending his own graduation two days later. Elseisy was arrested weeks later on a misdemeanor charge of disrupting a meeting.
Later that year, the university issued a one-year deferred suspension against Zhou and a two-year suspension from any UT system institution against Elseisy.
SJP’s suspension
UTD initiated disciplinary proceedings against the school’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine — or SJP — for its alleged involvement in the walkout at the May 16, 2025 commencement ceremony because students chanted “we are all SJP” as they left the building. The university suspended SJP earlier this year, according to the suit.
The lawsuit further alleges UTD has unfairly surveilled SJP UTD ahead of demonstrations and events.
The chapter denied that they were involved in the walkout, stating in the lawsuit that the chant and variations of it are used in university protests across the country.
“SJPUTD does not have a trademark on SJP, SJP simply stands for Students for Justice in Palestine,” the suit states. “If students want to chant about their support for Palestine, then they are exactly that–they are students who believe in justice for Palestine.”
Sarah Khalid, an organizer with SJP Dallas, did not confirm in an interview with KERA News whether any students who were part of the walkout were members of SJP.
"The only thing that facilitated the commencement walkout was UTD's refusal to cut ties with the Israeli occupation," Khalid said.
Toluwani Osibamowo is KERA’s law and justice reporter. Got a tip? Email Toluwani at tosibamowo@kera.org.
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