UNC student, six others arrested after campus protests

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill released the names Thursday of six people arrested during a speech by former Virginia Rep. Virgil Goode on campus.

Campus police also arrested a UNC student, Helen Elizabeth Koch, on charges of disorderly conduct during a protest by speech by former Congressman Tom Tancredo a week earlier.

Goode, a vocal opponent of illegal immigration, spoke to about 150 people at the Frank Porter Graham Student Union Wednesday night.

Police arrested six people on charges of disorderly conduct and removed them from the venue. None of those arrested was a current student or employee of the university.

They were:

• Meredith Ann Dickey, 18, of 824 Chamberlain Road in Raleigh
• Michael Bandes, 25, of 1714 Jo Mac Road in Orange County
• Rachel Love Harris, 22, of 1714 Jo Mac Road in Orange County
• Sarah Monica Johnson, 25, of 822 Chamberlain St. in Raleigh
• Jack Wilson Groves, 18, of 822 Chamberlain St. in Raleigh
• Donald George Yeo, 30, of 206 Prince St. in Carrboro

Wednesday’s protest was on a smaller scale than a similar one a week ago when Tancredo addressed the same subject. Police had to halt his speech after demonstrators broke a window.

Students who said they helped organize the protests said Koch is a Morehead Scholar and an honors student. She was released from the UNC police station under a $1,000 bond, they said.

The protest organizers issued a statement decrying Koch's arrest and condemning what they called police intimidation and harassment.