A senior at the University of Southern California (USC) responded to the cancelation of her school’s commencement ceremony in an interview Monday.
“It was genuinely devastating,” USC senior Melina Feradouni said. “I was sitting in the classroom doing a final review session when I got the email from the [university] provost. It came to the point where my eyes began to water — I was so distraught, I had to ask the professor to excuse me. I was so heartbroken that everything I’ve worked for has now been taken away.”
Feradouni’s mother, Ramona Gamzeltova, said that Los Angeles Mayor Bass’ statement about the commencement ceremony’s cancelation was “absolutely not” acceptable.
Mayor Bass said that not all graduation celebration events at USC were canceled, explaining that the “main graduation” was canceled but the “individual schools” held their own events.
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“These kids have worked hard,” Gamzeltova said. “Yes, this commencement was canceled, they had other graduations, but at no point are they having speakers or that special feeling that they need to feel that day.”
Feradouni said that her friend was one of multiple people who became victims of attacks amid student protests over the Israel-Hamas war.
“Over the last few weeks we’ve seen protests,” Feradouni said, explaining that her friend was attacked and injured. “We’ve seen attacks. Yesterday was really eye-opening. When her head was split open, and we called 911, they told us that they didn’t feel safe enough to come and help her. How are we supposed to feel safe on our campus if the people who are supposed to be there to help us and protect us are not there?”
Gamzeltova said that USC appeared “thoughtless” over its initial decision to pick its valedictorian speaker.
Earlier this month, USC faced intense backlash for barring its valedictorian, Muslim biomedical engineering student Asna Tabassum, from speaking at the commencement ceremony over safety concerns after her critics accused her of promoting anti-Israel rhetoric on social media.
“They did not do their due diligence,” Gamzeltova said.
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“They chose to have someone who blatantly on their social media shows hate,” Gamzeltova said. “That becomes the representation of the school.”
Instead of coming out and saying ‘we made a mistake,’” Gamzeltova continued, the school chose to blame “safety issues” on its decision.
“Looking on campus, where is that safety that they promised?” she asked.
USC did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Fox News’ Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
