Last April, a number of students were pepper-sprayed in a “melee” that took place outside a Santa Monica College Board of Trustees meeting. About a hundred protesters gathered to protest a proposed two-tiered fee plan in which high-demand courses would be priced higher. Naturally, police sprayed them with less-lethal chemical weapons. An internal police review determined the violence against students “could have been prevented if college administrators had provided additional police resources and moved the gathering to a larger meeting hall.”