Keene State College has reached a settlement agreement with two former students who were arrested last year. The New Hampshire college agreed to forgive debt owed, compensate for lost wages and provide certain services to Ndeye “Khady” Badiane and Tyler Clavelle.
The total settlement amounts to about $42,000 between the two former students, who were arrested on campus last March.
Read NHPR’s previouscoverage of this incident here.
They were subsequently charged with resisting arrest, simple assault and trespassing, and the couple agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors earlier this year.
They agreed to a violation-level offense for resisting arrest and the assault and trespassing charges were dropped.
Badiane and Clavelle, who are Black, said in previous interviews with NHPR that the situation could have been de-escalated by college staff and city police.
They said their race and gender identity affected how they were treated and how the situation was handled.
Badiane says her shoulder was dislocated when she was arrested by Keene police and says police used excessive force in the arrest.
In a statement to NHPR earlier this year, Keene Police Chief Steven Russo said his officers attempted to deescalate the situation and that “there was absolutely no use of excessive force, and the minimal force used was reasonable and necessary due to the active resistance of the suspects.”
Badiane publicized the incident earlier this year after she posted videos on Twitter of the arrests, which forced Keene State to publicly grapple with what happened. She and Clavelle, her fiancé, made a number of demands to the school, including firing the campus safety officer and residence hall director involved in their arrest, payment for therapy fees and help finishing school.
They also pushed for racial sensitivity training for campus employees. There were a number of student-led rallies in support of Badiane and Clavelle earlier this year. In February, some faculty and teaching fellows asked the college to put its full support behind Badiane and Clavelle.
The settlement Badiane and Clavelle reached with the school in late May does provide remote instruction at no cost to Badiane to finish her degree. Clavelle will receive $5,000 for “future educational or other personal advancement opportunities.”
Keene will also confirm that there are no disciplinary notations on either’s transcript.
As part of the settlement, the two agreed to stop speaking publicly about their issues with the school.
“Students agree not to defame, disparage or otherwise write, post, say or do anything that would tend to damage or lower the reputation of KSC, its programs, students trustees, officers or employees,” the agreement reads.
Keene State does not admit fault in the agreement it reached with the former students.
