PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Officials at Portland State University will be voting on whether to disarm campus police officers on Thursday amid intense pressure from the student union.
Students have been pushing for officers to be disarmed for 5 years now — those calls only got louder after campus police officers shot and killed Jason Washington last year. Many students never wanted campus police armed in the first place and protested against it from the start.
The PSU student union said that if campus police are not disarmed, they’ll make an “important announcement,” and that they won’t back down on the issue.
PSU’s Interim President will also be presenting a campus safety update at the same meeting. The meeting will be at 9 a.m. on Thursday at the Academic and Student Recreation Center, room 515.
KOIN 6 News will continue to cover this story as it develops.