University leaders have an obligation to ensure that law-abiding students are safe on their campuses and have access to their classrooms, libraries, and other school facilities, the lawyer behind a class-action lawsuit against Columbia University told National Review.

The anti-Israel and sometimes pro-Hamas protests that have roiled the nation’s campuses in recent weeks are “exactly the opposite of what the point of college is,” said Chicago-based lawyer Jay Edelson, who sued Columbia on Monday, charging the school’s leaders with breach of contract.

University leaders have a duty to ensure that their campuses are safe and that their students’ educations are not disrupted by protesters. Columbia’s leaders have failed to do that, the lawsuit contends.

But so far, lawyers, including Edelson, have been reluctant to take similar legal action against the protesters themselves.

While Edelson’s team is focusing on its Columbia suit right now, “we are also talking to other students from other schools,” he said.

Although the Columbia protests have received the bulk of the attention in recent weeks, campus life has been disrupted at several schools, frustrating law-abiding students who pay tens of thousands of dollars to attend and who expect access to classrooms and campus amenities.

Anti-Israel protesters have blocked students from getting to class at UCLA and stopped Jewish students from entering the library. Portland State University in Oregon closed its campus recently after protesters took over the library. Cal Poly Humboldt has closed its campus until mid-May, according to news reports. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill canceled classes on Tuesday, the last day of spring instruction. The City College of New York has moved to remote learning “until further notice.” The University of Minnesota has closed at least 13 campus buildings due to the protests there.

“Would you pay $80,000 to go to a school where other people are allowed to walk freely and you’re not? The answer is ‘No,’” said Edelson, who filed the class-action suit against Columbia in the U.S. District Court of New York on Monday on behalf of an unnamed, second-year Jewish student.

The lawsuit alleges that a subset of protesters are harassing Jewish students and faculty members, inciting hate speech and violence, and have “actively blocked Jewish and other students” from “traversing the campus and attending classes.” Jewish students who are relegated to attending classes virtually “get a second-class education,” the lawsuit alleges.

“Columbia has done nothing to curb this outrageous behavior or meaningfully discipline those responsible,” the lawsuit states, “and the administration’s inaction and willingness to capitulate to the demands of this extremist element of demonstrators have fanned the flames of antisemitism across campus.”

The lawsuit targets the university’s trustees. Edelson said that at this point, he’s focused on the “adults in the room” and isn’t interested in suing student protesters.

“Free speech is a core principle in America and something we believe in,” he said. “We’re not really eager just to start suing a bunch of people, even if they’re publicly supporting what we think is illegal behavior. And we’re not terribly excited about the prospect of suing students.”

“If everyone is just suing everyone, I think that just leads to more chaos,” Edelson added.

However, the prospect of taking legal action against disruptive protesters and the organizations behind them has been floated before.

In December, the Wall Street Journal editorial board suggested using “creative class actions” to hit mobs of anti-Israel protesters “in their pocketbooks.” Lawyers with the free-market Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute are exploring legal action against the organizers of well-planned protests that blocked highways and bridges in major cities. Ned Hedley, a lawyer with the institute, told National Review that there haven’t been strong enough deterrence efforts from government leaders and law enforcement in many Democratically controlled jurisdictions.

“If the police and the district attorneys are not going to aggressively prosecute and counter this type of behavior and this conduct, which puts people at risk, then perhaps a civil lawsuit, a class action . . . might work as an effective deterrent,” Hedley said.

But Hedley isn’t sold on filing lawsuits against campus demonstrators, some of whom may have few assets and are essentially judgment-proof.

“Theoretically, it’s possible. But realistically, it’s more of a long shot,” he said, adding that going after university leaders charged with maintaining order on campus is a “leaner case to make.”

While Edelson isn’t planning on taking legal action against student protesters, he said his team is following leads and taking a close look at some of the “very scary individuals” who they believe are involved in orchestrating the campus actions.

Edelson said the protests at Columbia have been more than just disruptive. In some cases, students who have “worked their whole lives” to attend the Ivy League school have been unable to take finals because there were in-person elements and it wasn’t safe for them on campus. He said his team has also started to hear reports of retaliatory grading by some activist professors and teacher’s aides, which he called “incredibly concerning.”

“These teachers quite literally hold the future of their kids in their hands,” he said. “And if they’ve got other agendas, that’s very problematic.”