COLUMBUS, Ohio — As pro-Palestinian protests escalate on college campuses across the county, some schools in Ohio are bracing for the potential for more demonstrations.

What You Need To Know

  • Large pro-Palestinian demonstrations at schools like New York University and Columbia have some schools in Ohio preparing for possible protests

  • A spokesperson for The Ohio State University said police and trained staff are on site for any on-campus demonstrations, and said free speech is encouraged, but harassment and discrimination is not

  • Marc Clausen, professor of law, history and honors at Cedarville University said private schools can restrict who can be on campus, but public colleges and universities can’t stop the gatherings from taking place

Marc Clauson, professor of history and law at Cedarville University, said he is closely watching the situation at schools. He said private schools can restrict who can be on campus, but public colleges and universities can't stop the gatherings.

"You can establish reasonable time, place and manner regulations that would sort of confine the protest to certain areas, but you can't prevent them altogether because they're a public forum and public university taxpayer funded," he said.

But he said campuses also need to protect student safety.

"The question is, where does it become violent?" Clausen said. "Where does that line get drawn? That's the hard part right now."

He said there have been no protests on Cedarville's campus. A spokesperson for the University of Akron said the campus has had one peaceful gathering of about 25 students, and the university was not aware of any other events planned, noting gatherings for any purpose need to be registered in advance with the university.

On Tuesday, two students were arrested in connection with a protest on the campus of The Ohio State University, the Columbus Dispatch reported.

"We've avoided [large protests] because the bulk of our student bodies at the big universities tend to be just average, ordinary people who aren't that politically minded about these kinds of things," Clausen said. "And that's just kind of a midwestern stance, if you will."

A spokesperson for The Ohio State University said police and trained staff are on site for any on-campus demonstrations, and said free speech is encouraged, but harassment and discrimination are not.

"I think it will probably spread to other campuses," Clausen said. "So it's going to be with us for a little bit, but this is definitely the most active I've seen it since the whole conflict with Israel began. Actually, you can go all the way back to 1948. You don't see this kind of thing to this extent."

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