Hundreds of students have recently been arrested for participating in protests against the Israeli government’s war on Gaza at dozens of universities across the country.

But blue lights and zip ties aren’t making students on any campus safer, and sending in armed troops will only increase the tensions -- and the potential for tragedy.

We don’t have to guess what that looks like because we already know: At Kent State on May 4, 1970, 28 National Guard soldiers fired into a crowd of thousands protesting the Vietnam War. They killed four students and wounded nine others.

Those protests weren’t so different from the ones we are seeing today. Young people across the country are exercising their constitutionally protected rights to free speech and assembly to protest horrific violence in Gaza.