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 originally 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 to hear and respond to their concerns, while ensuring DePaul remains a welcoming space for our diverse university community.”

Freeman, who is 50, also made connections to his own experience growing up in the Robert Taylor Homes, a housing project in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood. 

“I can’t imagine them having to deal with that every day on that campus,” said Freeman, who teared up as he spoke. “And I’m a grown man, 25 years in security, been through hell myself growing up in the projects with bullets coming through my window. And you know what I mean, no, kids don’t deserve that.”

Freeman continues to work for Guardian Security — he now does private security at a parking complex in River North. 

Freeman said he was called into the office of his supervisor at Guardian Security. 

“Well, we can’t put you out there anymore (at DePaul),” Freeman said he was told by his supervisor. 

Henna Ayesh, board member of DePaul’s Students for Justice in Palestine, talked about the care DePaul students had for Freeman, during a rally in support of Freeman at DePaul’s Student Center. 

“I discovered that the one security guard on this campus that Palestinian students truly felt safe with was wrongly interrogated because they refused to discriminate against Palestinian students on campus,” Ayesh said during a press conference. “We will continue to fight until our universities start protecting all students, because time and time again, you have shown that your protection of all students does not encompass Palestinian students.” 

An adjunct instructor in Health Sciences, Anne d’Aquino spoke at the press conference in support of Freeman. D’Aquino was terminated on May 8 for “the introduction of political matters into the class,” which were “unrelated to the course.” She was found to have had her academic freedom and due process violated by DePaul by the faculty appeals board, which recommended reinstatement. After this decision was handed down in June, d’Aquino was reinstated by Provost Salma Ghanem. 

“Now, DePaul has removed Terrance, an individual who genuinely and authentically protected students and helped foster a warm, inclusive and accepting environment on this campus for being too friendly to Palestinian students,” d’Aquino said.

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