Hunter College demonstrators attend the Met Gala, several arrests occur. Here’s the latest

NEW YORK – Protesters supporting Palestinians left Hunter College on Monday and headed to the I met Gala in New York City. According to police, 27 people were arrested, mostly for disorderly conduct.

Hunter College is on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, about 12 blocks south Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Around 4:30 p.m., several hundred people gathered at Hunter’s and then headed north to the museum, where many celebrities and fans were in attendance for the biggest fashion evening of the year.

According to CBS New York’s Jennifer Bisram, protesters first stopped at 80th Street and Madison Avenue, where they chanted “Stop it” and blocked the intersection. The group tried to get closer to the museum through Central Park, but several access points were closed due to the Met Gala, Chopper 2’s Dan Rice reported.

Members of the NYPD were on scene and police previously said they were prepared for any demonstrations outside the gala.

There were occasional clashes between protesters and officers and even pro-Israel supporters on Madison Avenue and in Central Park, just outside the vast police perimeter.

During the demonstrations, a historic monument to soldiers in Central Park was vandalized and an American flag was burned, while protesters marched with flares and tried to disrupt the Met Gala.

The protest eventually broke up near Grand Army Plaza in Manhattan, about a mile away.

Hunter College will be fully remote

Due to the ongoing protests, Hunter College announced on Monday that it would forego remote learning entirely.

Because the demonstrations were designed to move, school leaders said they were unsure how many protesters would gather outside Hunter or for how long.

Police officers set up barricades outside the college’s entrance at East 68th Street and Lexington Avenue. When full distance learning came into effect at 3 p.m., students left campus in large numbers because it was decided to cancel late afternoon and evening classes.

The school said all safety measures are being taken out of an abundance of caution. Campus law enforcement told CBS New York that it is better to be over-prepared than under-prepared.

The move to fully remote learning left some Hunter students confused

Students said they learned about the move to online learning via email and text messages. Some said the announcement surprised them.

“I didn’t even know the protest was going to happen today,” said sophomore Hannah Miller. “So this is my last lesson for the day.”

“I have a class at 6 p.m. that they basically canceled, and I have an exam next week, so preparing for the exam,” freshman Vilen Kim said. “I spend my time, I spend my money doing everything I can to get here and pay the tuition and everything, and they just canceled my course for no reason.”