DePaulia
The
Volume #109 | Issue #1 | Sept. 16, 2024 | depauliaonline.com
WILL ROBSON | THE DEPAULIA
Terrance Freeman hugs a supporter after speaking at a demonstration organized by Students for Justice in Palestine at DePaul University in Lincoln Park on Sept. 12, 2024. Freeman’s removal from his position as a campus security officer sparked outrage.
‘That’s not doing security to me’: Privately contracted security guard relocated off DePaul campus By Jake Cox Digital Managing Editor
When Terrance Freeman was hired as a privately contracted security officer on DePaul’s campus, he said he knew nothing about the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. For him, the job was simply about keeping people safe. Standing in front of a crowd of more than 200 pro-Palestinian protestors, Freeman restated that sentiment on Sept. 12 at a Students for Justice in Palestine rally at the Lincoln Park Student Center, held to kick off the year and speak in support of Freeman. Freeman, a former security officer for DePaul, claimed he was ultimately moved off DePaul’s campus for being “too friendly to Palestinian students.” The news of Freeman’s removal was orig-
inally announced on the Students for Justice in Palestine’s Instagram page on Wednesday, Sept. 11. This prompted some to believe that Freeman was fired from his position; however, he was relocated to continue his work with Guardian Security at a different location. When asked for a comment on the issue, a university spokeswoman had this response. “The security guard was a contracted employee and is no longer assigned by their employer to work on our campus,” Kristin Claes Mathews, senior director of strategic communications at DePaul, said in an email to The DePaulia. Before his relocation, Freeman claims he was called into DePaul’s Public Safety office. He also said he was reprimanded for taking photos and embracing students. “Terrance, you know, you put your arm
around them,” Freeman said a Public Safety dispatcher told him. “and you have to understand that, you know, there’s sexual harassment issues that can come behind this.” In addition to potential sexual harassment issues, Freeman said Public Safety also had concerns that his actions may show bias when a security guard is supposed to be there to protect students and stay neutral. “What do you think about the other side, in terms of the (pro-)Israelis, what they would think about that?” he said he was told. Freeman, however, does not believe this was a valid concern. He said that as part of his job, he seeks to protect everyone, regardless of their political opinions, ethnicity or race. “I wasn’t interested in keeping an eye out for one nationality or one Palestinian group,” he said. “That’s not doing security to me, and
that to me, that’s a violation of security.” He took it a step further, saying that he felt DePaul Public Safety discriminated against Palestinian students during last spring’s pro-Palestinian encampment on DePaul’s Quad. “The saddest thing is that they would come to a college campus, they mamas or their parents, paying for them to go to school,” Freeman said. “Hoping that they could come there and be treated with dignity and respect, they got to be treated differently because they’re Palestinian.” When asked about Freeman’s statements about DePaul culture, Mathews included this in the written statement to The DePaulia: “The safety of our students, faculty and staff is a top priority at DePaul. Staff continue to work closely with our student groups
See SECURITY GUARD, page 4