Through the Eyes of a Protester: Arwyn Heilrayne's Commitment to Justice in the UT Pro-Palestine Protests
Arwyn Heilrayne at the Capitol in Austin, Texas.
Arwyn Heilrayne has been dedicated to activism for as long as she can remember.
Helirayne’s involvement with protests ranges from LGBTQ+ rights, trans rights, as well as gun violence prevention. The UT protests were no exception as she, among hundreds of campus students, raised her voice in solidarity for Palestine. On Wednesday, April 24 and 29, 2024, students of the University of Texas at Austin, including Heilrayne, were arrested during a pro-Palestine protest.
Theater education sophomore Arwyn Heilrayne was raised in Austin, Texas. Ever since she was a child, she’s been going to protests at the Capitol. For her, this is the world she lives in, so fighting for what’s right is nothing new. “When the adults, the government, and the people who are supposed to take care of things fail, it is the youth's responsibility to step up,” she says. “And that's what I did.” She is a fan of peaceful protests, particularly a good sit-in or sing-along. She believes that protests that incorporate joy are incredibly powerful and create a more sustainable movement. “You know, a lot of the deeply angry protesters can just get burned out,” she says. “I think finding ways to bring back healing and joy into the protest specifically is a really powerful thing.”
Many protestors had their reasons for participating, but for Heilrayne it was deeply personal as she expressed what motivated her to join the cause. “I care about children being killed and I don’t think that my university should fund that.” Her eyes were intense and serious as she spoke. “I think that that's fucked up and not where my tuition dollars should be going,” she says. “But particularly those weapons are being used to kill children that didn't do anything wrong.”
The protest, organized by UT’s Palestinian Solidarity Committee, hosted the movement to protest the Israel-Hamas war and demand the university to “disinvest” from weapons manufacturing along with other universities. Across the US, colleges including Yale and Columbia, sparked a movement of pro-Palestinian protests and demonstrations. Over 100 protestors were arrested at Columbia and at least 47 at Yale. In most of these cases, students are facing off with the police, trying to invoke their First Amendment rights.
As Heilrayne continued her story, she expressed how that fateful day in May was supposed to be a peaceful walkout. The walkout would've been followed by a space on campus for educational purposes, including tech-ins, workshops, and discussions.
According to a statement from the Department of Public Safety, officers were deployed under the directive of Gov. Greg Abbott and requested by the university.
Heilrayne described how they gathered around 10:30 AM as the protest was scheduled to start at 11 on Speedway Mall. “We were planning to gather in front of the gym on campus and then march to this beautiful, green area of lawn space,” she recalls. “When I got there, there was already a significant amount of law enforcement there and we tried to do our little march and they were like, actually, no.” She described being surrounded by a crowd of protesters on all sides, while cops on horses, bikes, and motorcycles formed a barrier. Officers from the University Police, Austin Police Department, and even state troopers in full riot gear blocked the crowd from marching forward.“They (police) said you have to disperse and we were like, okay. They gave us one channel to disperse through, which meant that there was a large crowd of hundreds of people walking down that channel. Because it's the only way we had to walk, and in fact they told us that we were not dispersing, because we were walking down the one channel that they gave us,” she says. “And so they told us again that we had to disperse, and that’s when they started arresting people, and pushing people down, and hitting people, and all hell broke loose.”
Arwyn Heilrayne being arrested by Texas state troopers on Speedway Mall
What began as a peaceful protest quickly descended into chaos, as protesters shouted "shame on you" at the police. Heilrayne watched with heartbreak as fellow students were forcefully dragged away by law enforcement. “It was rough. It was students who I care about and who were doing nothing wrong and watching your peers get beat up by the people who are supposed to protect you kind of does something to your psyche,” she remembers. “It breaks your trust in the system on a whole other level.”
Heilrayne recalls the protest being chaotic when the violence broke out. She remembered feeling scared when they arrested the first person of the day and for Heilrayne, the fear kicked in. “We weren't expecting this. No one was expecting that kind of police presence,” she recalls.”We weren't planning to set up an encampment. We weren't planning to disrupt university activities. We were not expecting that level of law enforcement or anything to happen.”
When Heilrayne described the scene unfolding, I asked her how important is solidarity among protestors, especially in light of the police violence that day. She highlighted its importance by explaining how if they don’t have each other’s backs, nothing is successful. She explains that they do a lot of community events beyond protests, where they come together, build bonds, and strengthen their solidarity. At protests, they rely on each other to have their backs. “Who keeps us safe, we keep us safe. That's the only option we have,” Heilrayne says.
However, her training prepared her for the sheer amount of ferocity as the police tried to violently disperse the crowd. “Because of my protest background, I have a lot of training in what to do when protests get violent,” she says.
As the protest raged on, Heilrayne’s fight and flight instincts kicked in. She said her decision-making brain completely switched off and just like that, her training kicked into gear. She expressed that those with any training were doing their best to maintain order and communicate what needed to happen as quickly and loudly as possible to the large masses of students. Over a span of those two days, Heilrayne was arrested along with over 130 other protesters at UT.
Heilrayne spent 18 hours in the Travis County Jail, along with other protesters. Heilrayne described the main jail cell as something straight out of a movie. In the main booking area, there were walls that went halfway up with benches inside. She mentioned that she was seated with everyone else, separated by gender, with those identified as female on one side and those identified as male on the other. For the first few hours, they were in a group holding cell together. Despite the anxiety, she said that at least they were together and chatting.
However, for the next 14 hours, Heilrayne was held in single cell. The cell where she was alone had just a metal bed, a toilet connected to a sink, and a small metal desk with no chair. Lastly, above the room was a bright light above the door. She described the experience as a bit brutal. “The guards were pretty awful to us,” she confessed. “I did get off better than some of the people I was arrested with,” Heilrayne revealed the harsh treatment they endured in jail. She recounted witnessing people who wore hijabs being denied them. She also saw a girl arrested with them who was on her period and was denied sanitary products, forcing her to sit in her own blood the entire time they were in jail. “We were all denied phone calls. I wanted to ask the guard what time it was. One guard was wearing a watch and he yelled at me to stop talking back. They were just unkind.” However, when she asked how long they would be held, the police told her they could keep them for up to 72 hours without any charges. “We had no idea how long we'd be there or what was happening, and that was really rough,” she says.
Once she was released, Heilrayne was welcomed back by the community with overwhelming support. “Everyone has been incredibly supportive and when I was released from jail, I had over 1, 500 unread text messages of people asking how they could help and how they could support me,” Heilrayne says. “The community has deeply come together since everything that happened on campus.” There’s even been a great deal of support from campus organizations and from the city, including the Austin for Palestine Coalition.
Up until this point, I was amazed by her strength and determination to fight. Many people would stand up for what's right, but Heilrayne seemed born to fight. And while the protest ended in arrests, the 19-year-old is confident that their message is being heard by those in power. “Absolutely. I think the fact that they feel the need to retaliate against us means that they're hearing us,” Her voice was filled with confidence. “If they weren't scared of us, they would let us do our thing.” After her retelling of her journey at the UT protests, I had to ask: How did she measure the success of the protest? Heilrayne confessed it was difficult to measure the success. “The university obviously has not divested from the weapons industry. However, I think that it has still been incredibly useful in just raising awareness and showing the university that we care,” she says. “And this movement is not done. We are not done. School goes back in a few weeks and this issue will not be dead.” Heilrayne believes that consistent pressure on the university will make a difference, as seen in the greater Austin community. She expressed this as she used SXSW as an example. SXSW is an event that celebrates the intersection of tech, film, music, education, and culture in Austin, Texas. SXSW has banned war profiteers from attending the event and has completely stopped funding for weapons manufacturing. Heilrayne says it has been incredibly successful in other areas and they hope that consistency on their campus will achieve those same goals within their community.
Heilrayne continues her fight, feeling that being arrested has changed her. “I think that I look and move through the world very differently than I did three months ago,” Heilrayne says.
When we reached the pivotal point of the interview, I asked her if she believed history would remember these protests and their profound impact. “I think we will look back on these protests in a similar way that we look back on the Vietnam protests. You know, the way that we see student movements in retrospect is always in a good light,” she says. “And universities take credit for the work of their students and say, look what our students were doing during this time and the social change that they were working to create, even when those same universities were actually beating up and jailing those students at the time.”
Throughout her journey, including the protests, the arrests, and the overwhelming support she received, Heilrayne has demonstrated remarkable resilience and dedication. She believes that participating in this protest is making a difference by amplifying voices that often go unheard. By getting their message out there, they are pushing for the changes they are asking for. Her experiences have not only reinforced her commitment to fighting for what’s right but also highlighted the profound impact of combining determination with joy in activism. As she continues her work, her unwavering spirit and belief in the power of consistent, passionate advocacy remain a testament to her unwavering dedication to change.
