A graphics reporter who was working for Bloomberg News and formerly worked at The New York Times was arrested when anti-Israel activists seized control of Columbia University’s Butler Library earlier this month.

Jason Kao, who graduated from Columbia in 2022, was charged with criminal trespass and given a desk appearance ticket as a result of his actions on May 7. Eighty-one activists were arrested.

Bloomberg reporter arrested during anti-Israel protesters’ takeover of Columbia University library — and is no longer employed by outlet https://t.co/flQD0VqrwR pic.twitter.com/VaavsjR8qp

— New York Post (@nypost) May 20, 2025

“During the unrest, rioters injured two, passed out pamphlets endorsing Hamas’s violence, vandalized and damaged the library, and renamed the building after Basel al-Araj, a Palestinian terrorist killed in a 2017 shootout with the Israel Defense Forces,” the Washington Free Beacon, which broke the news of Kao’s arrest, noted, adding, “Kao’s personal website is exclusively devoted to negative coverage of Israel’s war in Gaza.

Bloomberg News told the Free Beacon that Kao is no longer employed at the outlet.

Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), the campus coalition of leftists, released a video in which they stated, “BREAKING: THE BASEL AL-ARAJ POPULAR UNIVERSITY HAS JUST LAUNCHED, RECLAIMING BUTLER LIBRARY FOR THE PEOPLE … Over 100 people have just flooded Columbia University for Palestine.”

The group issued a list of demands, including: “Full financial divestment from zionist occupation, apartheid and genocide. Academic boycott of all complicit institutions, including the cancellation of the Tel Aviv Global Center. Cops and ICE off our campus. … Amnesty for all students, staff, faculty and workers targeted by Columbia University’s discipline.”

We reject an imperialist economy of knowledge. We evoke the legacy of liberation and the philosophy of direct action of Basel al-Araj.

OUR DEMANDS: pic.twitter.com/gwKVnowrXu

— CU Apartheid Divest (CUAD) (@ColumbiaBDS) May 7, 2025

Last year, the Columbia University Apartheid Divest coalition publicly acknowledged a deeper truth: they are fighting to “eradicate” Western civilization. They joined with the university’s Bengali Student Association to post a statement on Instagram, as Campus Reform reported.

“We are Westerners fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization,” they stated. “We stand in full solidarity with every movement for liberation in the Global South. Our Intifada is an internationalist one—we are fighting for nothing less than the liberation of all people. We reject every genocidal, eugenicist regime that seeks to undermine the personhood of the colonized.”

”As the fascism ingrained in the American consciousness becomes ever more explicit and irrefutable, we seek community and instruction from militants in the Global South, who have been on the frontlines in the fight against tyranny and domination which undergird the imperialist world order,” they continued.

A Virginia school district official conspired to “skirt” restrictions on transgender ideology in schools, prompting a Title IX “expert” to praise her “clever” workaround, emails shared with The Daily Wire reveal.

On January 22, 2025, Leah Bressler, Montgomery County Public Schools’ Title IX compliance officer, corresponded with the Association of Title IX Administrators about ways to respond to Trump’s expected executive actions on transgender ideology. In the email exchange, obtained by Speech First and shared with The Daily Wire. Bressler proposed altering the district’s code of conduct in a way to keep its current “gender identity protections” in place. 

In response, Brett Sokolow, the chair of the advisory board for the Association of Title IX Administrators, said that he didn’t know if Bressler’s proposal would successfully “skirt” executive action, but that it may be worth it to “go down fighting.” 

The exchange, with the subject line “Implications of EO,” occurred two days after Trump’s inauguration. 

“This is just a brainstorm….What if the system just moved to a code of conduct that provided the Title IX framework to any allegation for any reason that violated the Davis standard?” Bressler wrote. “With support services, monitoring, documentation as required in Title IX — but open the gate to entire conduct policy? Our jurisdiction has protections in our policy manual for gender identity – if the policies applied to everything equally across the board- couldn’t the system maintain the protections?”

The Davis Standard refers to federal guidelines that stipulate schools can only be held liable for sexual harassment and violations of Title IX if they have knowledge of, and are indifferent to, sexual harassment.

In response, Sokolow said that Bressler may have come up with a “clever” way to get past Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin’s (R) Department of Education, which holds that Title IX allows schools to restrict bathroom use by sex. 

“This is too state-specific for me to really be able to opine on, Leah. It’s clever, but I have no idea if it would work to skirt the limitations that VA is enacting. My suspicion is that state legislatures will punish cleverness, in the long run (see Texas). Meaning, that if school officials like you find legit ways to work around the state limitations, the state will learn from this and respond by tightening its limitations,” Sokolow replied. 

“This might be a viable strategy for you, or at least a good delaying tactic, but I don’t think it has legs in the long term. I think if it walks like a Title IX duck, it’s not going to matter what container we place it in. But, fight the good fight. I’m just giving you thoughts on whether your idea is a winner…but it might be good to go down fighting,” he added. 

That email came two days after Trump signed an executive order on “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism,” which rescinded the Biden administration’s application of Title IX to gender identity. He later signed an executive order that directed federal funding away from schools that push gender ideology on students. 

Current Montgomery County Public Schools policies stipulate that students are allowed to use the bathroom or locker room of their choice based on their gender identity, meaning that males are allowed into female restrooms and changing areas.

When asked by The Daily Wire if it consults on bypassing federal regulations, the Association of Title IX Administrators said that it does “not provide legal advice.” 

“ATIXA often discusses with members the challenges of competing and unclear federal, state, and court standards, and we encourage our members to explore the contours of these challenges fully to best assess how their schools, districts, and institutions should respond to a dynamic legal environment related to sex discrimination,” the organization said. 

A similar dynamic has played out across the country as liberal school officials have resisted Trump’s efforts to purge leftist ideology from federally funded schools and empower parents concerned about political indoctrination.  

Speech First Acting Executive Director Nicole Neily called for Congress to step into the fight over Title IX.

“It’s appalling — albeit unsurprising — that Title IX administrators seem to be determined to circumvent the very laws they’re supposed to be enforcing,” Neily said. “America’s girls are little more than collateral damage in these activists’ larger political war, which is why it’s imperative that Congress steps in to provide certainty and clarity and end these games.”