Almost a year after a dozen demonstrators at Stanford University were arrested for occupying an administrative building, charges have officially been filed against the students on Thursday.
In June 2024, protesters, most having an affiliation with the university, entered and barricaded themselves into a building that housed the university president’s office. Additional protesters linked arms around the building and spray painted “Our Office Now” on a window.
Inside the building, prosecutors say the protesters caused a chain of damage. They allegedly covered security cameras with tin foil, broke furniture and spread fake blood across the building’s floors. Protesters said they would not leave the building until the university met their demands: divesting from Israeli companies and dropping all charges against pro-Palestine activists.
The protesters and demonstrators were eventually forced out after three hours.
Now, the Santa Clara District Attorney Jeff Rosen is ordering 12 of those demonstrators to turn themselves in to authorities or risk being arrested.
“As district attorney, my job, alongside law enforcement, is to protect the people and property of Santa Clara County,” Rosen said during a charge announcement, according to KTVU Fox 2 San Francisco.
The felony charges pressed against the protesters are one of the more extreme cases coming out of the pro-Palestine protests that happened throughout the spring of 2024.
At USC, 50 students out of the 93 demonstrators arrested during the protests in April had to face disciplinary action. Students were required to write a “remorseful” essay and had official warnings imprinted on their student records. The spray painted words “Say no to genocide” were found on the bottom of the Tommy Trojan statue during the spring protests.
Since last April, no further students have been arrested even as the pro-Palestine movement continues forward.
For the Stanford protesters, they will be brought before court by the end of April at the Hall of Justice in San Jose.