A coordinated protest movement that snarled traffic at sites around the nation Monday involved a Days Creek student just trying to get back to campus.

Junior Natalie Harris was stuck on Interstate 5 for 45 minutes while protestors blocked freeway traffic to decry the Israel-Hamas conflict. Similar protests happened in four states.

Harris was at an orthodontia appointment in Eugene and was being driven back to Days Creek by her father, Nick when traffic slowed to a halt.

“We saw the whole freeway was covered with people and the overpass was covered too,” Harris said. “We knew there was a protest, but we didn’t know what for. They kept sending cop cars. A whole squadron was there.”

Fifty-two protestors were arrested on charges of second-degree disorderly conduct, according to the Eugene Register-Guard.

“It was scary when we were in it, but afterwards it wasn’t that bad once we knew what was going on,” Harris said. “There were people in masks and helmets. There were ‘stop the genocide’ posters everywhere and they were arresting people.”

Harris said they were stopped near three cement trucks on I-5, all of which was ruined by the delay.

Another student, junior Jana Ewing, said her grandmother had a surgery scheduled in Eugene and took an alternate route because of the disturbance.