Students at Yale Law School staged a sit-in on Monday and called for an investigation into sexual assault accusations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Videos and photos posted on Twitter show dozens of students dressed in black lining the hallway at Yale’s Sterling Law Building. The move led some faculty members to either cancel or reschedule classes, the law school said.
Demonstrators called on the university to better uphold its values, with one organizer of the protest saying that the sit-in was held to display that “we take allegations of sexual assault and harassment seriously,” according to the Hartford Courant.
{mosads}”We are here today to discuss the very real threat that Brett Kavanaugh poses to this country,” the organizer, who was not identified, said.
Yale Law School Dean Heather Gerken said in a statement on Monday that the allegations against Kavanaugh are “rightly causing deep concern” at the institution.
“Students have worked with the Law School administration and faculty so that the community can come together as a whole to discuss this important moment in our country’s history,” she said.
She also noted that “as dean, I cannot take a position on the nomination.”
The sit-in came as Kavanaugh, who graduated from Yale University and Yale Law School, faces increased scrutiny after two sexual assault accusations.
On Sunday, The New Yorker published a report detailing a sexual misconduct accusation against Kavanaugh stemming from his time as a student at Yale in the 1980s.
Deborah Ramirez accused Kavanaugh of exposing himself in front of her and causing her to touch his penis when she pushed him away. The incident allegedly happened during a party while the two were in college.
The allegation surfaced a week after Christine Blasey Ford came forward publicly in The Washington Post to describe an alleged sexual assault Kavanaugh committed while the two were in high school.
Kavanaugh has fiercely denied the claims from both Ford and Ramirez. He said in a statement on Sunday that the latest allegation was a “smear, plain and simple.”
The New Yorker report notes that at least two Democratic offices are investigating the incident.
Nearly 50 members of the Yale Law School faculty also sent an open letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week calling for an FBI investigation into Ford’s sexual assault allegation against Kavanaugh.
Ford and Kavanaugh are scheduled to testify regarding the charges on Thursday. But Senate Democrats have called for the hearing to be postponed following the new allegation.
Updated at 2:33 p.m.