( CNN ) -- The University of California is offering to pay $ 30,000 to each of 21 protesters who were pepper-sprayed by a campus policeman last year , according to a proposed out-of-court lawsuit settlement . If approved by a federal court , the deal could end the suit by demonstrators at an Occupy Movement encampment who were protesting tuition hikes and university privatization . Plaintiffs said police violated their civil rights and a school report called the spraying `` objectively unreasonable . '' The campus police officer who pepper-sprayed the protesters was no longer working at the school as of late July . The school declined to say whether the officer , Lt. John Pike , quit or was let go . Video footage of Pike spraying student demonstrators with the irritant at close range went viral , provoking widespread criticism of school authorities and making him a target of Internet ridicule . Under the pending agreement , which was announced Wednesday , the University of California would also pay $ 250,000 to plaintiffs ' attorneys . It also would set aside a $ 100,000 fund to pay as much as $ 20,000 to each individual who joins the class-action suit and can prove he was pepper-sprayed or arrested during the protest . The money would come from the school system 's general liability risk program , a self-insured fund , the president 's office said . Opinion : Occupy fizzled , but made 99 % a force . During the November 2011 protest , about a dozen demonstrators were seated on a path with their arms interlocked as police moved in to clear out members of the Occupy movement who were camped in the area . Officers forcibly removed the demonstrators after they had been sprayed . UC Davis had declared the protest unlawful . In addition to tuition increases and privatization , the demonstrators were protesting treatment of demonstrators at another campus -- the University of California at Berkeley , according to the proposed settlement . The plaintiffs alleged their civil rights were violated by being subjected to unlawful arrest and excessive force , the settlement papers said . Opinion : My arrest at Occupy Wall Street . U.C . Davis placed Pike , a second officer and Campus Police Chief Annette Spicuzza on administrative leave after the incident . In addition to calling the spraying an `` objectionably unreasonable '' use of force , a UC report on the incident accused Pike of misusing his weapon . The bright red pepper-spray canister the officer brandished before spraying was a higher pressure type and `` not an authorized weapon '' under campus police guidelines , the report said . The canister was designed to be used at a distance of at least 6 feet and `` Lt. Pike did not use it correctly , '' the report found . The report also blamed members of the U.C . Davis leadership , citing `` systemic and repeated failures '' among campus administrators that `` put officers in the unfortunate situation in which they found themselves . '' Citizens United new movie 'Occupy Unmasked ' -- President Bossie on Breitbart 's last project .
University of California would pay $ 500 each to 21 plaintiffs in a class - action suit . A federal court has yet to approve the settlement , officials say . The campus police pepper - sprayed seated student protesters at an outdoor protest . A video of the close - range pepper spraying went viral last year .