University of California-Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi on Monday apologized to students for last week’s pepper-spraying incident, where a campus police officer at point-blank range sprayed down a group of sitting protesters.
“I feel horrible for what happened on Friday, Katehi told a rally of students. “If you think you don’t want to be students in a university like we had Friday, I’m just telling you, I don’t want to be the chancellor of the university we had on Friday.”
Hundreds of students rallied on campus to protest Friday’s incident. In the wake of the pepper-spraying, two university police officers and UC Davis’ police chief Annette Spicuzza have been placed on administrative leave during a probe of the incident.
UC Davis student senator Amy Martin told TPM the student government is holding an emergency meeting Monday evening to address the pepper-spraying. “I think it’s clear we’re all horrified about what happened to our students on Friday,” she said.
Katehi has been under growing pressure to resign, but so far she’s staying put. “The university needs me,” she told ABC’s Good Morning America Monday morning. In an interview with NPR affiliate KQED, Katehi said the university police were not supposed to use force. She said, “as a human being,” she was “horrified” by the pepper-spraying images. And in front of students later on Monday, the chancellor admitted she must work to earn back the students’ trust.
“I know you may not believe anything that I’m telling you today, and you don’t have to,” Katehi said. “It is my responsibility to earn your trust.”
The crowd chanted “Shame on you” and “resign” at Katehi after she finished her remarks, AggieTV reported.
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