From the Community | Drop the felony charges against student protesters

One Stanford morning, 50 students barricaded themselves inside the president’s office. A rally in support quickly followed, and chants ricocheted off Main Quad’s walls to the campus beyond.

That was in May of 1989. If it sounds familiar, it’s because a smaller group of 12 Free Palestine student protesters followed in their footsteps last June to organize a sit-in at this very office, which they renamed “Dr. Adnan’s Office” after the Palestinian surgeon who died in an Israeli prison.

In response to the “1989 Takeover” and their demands for racial justice on campus, the police arrested 55 students. However, students successfully prevented a bus from taking protesters to jail by blocking it with their cars, bikes and bodies. The students held in the bus were all released and received misdemeanor citations. One student was held in jail all night and faced charges. 

The next day, University officials stated they would “investigate whether the student occupiers violated the Fundamental Standard.”

Today’s administrators dismissed such basic deliberation and consideration for student protesters. Last June, the 12 students who did the same – a sit-in at the president’s office – were immediately suspended and banned from campus. Seniors were not allowed to graduate. After an administrator called the police on students, a police officer broke a window while students were still inside. The 12 students and even a student reporter were jailed for 13 to 20 hours. 

10 months later, District Attorney Jeff Rosen, after many national right-wing crackdowns on dissent, officially charged them with felonies – meaning, up to 3 years in jail and the possibility of never voting again. 

This may make you wonder: What warrants this extreme response?

In his press conference, Rosen “made much” of the fake blood splashed by the protesters. He’s proudly touted the catchline, “Dissent is American. Vandalism is criminal.” Is funding a genocide American, too? Why is smearing fake blood in a vacant office considered illegal vandalism, while Stanford’s complicity in a genocide that has killed 50,000 people and injured 120,000 is perfectly legal? 

As students across the country are being punished for last year’s protests, we cannot let media coverage of these charges dilute the significance of what we’re fighting for. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and UN human rights experts have sounded the alarms on Israel’s genocide in Gaza over a year ago now. It seems that Stanford administrators have their ears assailed to this disastrous truth; otherwise, surely they would have followed their own Statement on Investment Responsibility and divested from genocide and apartheid.

Besides the profits being made from companies like Palantir, Stanford probably hasn’t divested from genocide because, in the words of University president Jonathan Levin, “the university’s purpose is not political action or social justice.”

The truth is that there is no such thing as the “institutional neutrality” Stanford established only last May — the silence that ensues is loud and clear. The silence was loud to immigrant students like myself when Provost Jenny Martinez shut down a sanctuary campus resolution that would prohibit Stanford from assisting ICE police. The silence was loud to workers fired due to budget cuts by an institution with a $37 billion endowment. The silence is loud to anti-genocide student protesters, whose unprecedented felony charges have been met with zero resistance from administration, which signals either their support for these charges or utter indifference to these students. 

For a powerful institution like Stanford, silence is a privilege. Amidst governmental attacks against our communities and our right to protest, Stanford administration’s willful decision to abstain is a recognition that they don’t need to fight for us. What is the point of academia if it does not bravely wield its resources to fight for justice for its students and society at large?

Stanford didn’t even attempt to wield its power against a genocide. But its students did. Free Palestine protesters on this campus have frequently engaged in dialogue, endured defamation, assault, harassment and doxxing, while attending meeting after meeting, leading action after action, sustaining encampment after encampment and organizing ASSU divestment petitions with overwhelming support. Faced by institutional inaction, the Stanford 12 put their degrees and more on the line to wield the one power they had against a genocide: the right to protest.

Whether Levin and Martinez realize it or not, the unforgiving tides of history will eventually sweep them. One day, the genocide in Gaza will be remembered among the inhumane tragedies that plagued humanity. The walls of Green Library will have an exhibit celebrating the Stanford 12’s sit-in at the president’s office. One day, the “Know Justice Know Peace” banner will be reinstated, and a new slew of Stanford leaders will heed what it stands for. 

The 1989 Takeover is celebrated, its legacy revered. Thanks to that sit-in, the Stanford president at the time committed to increasing the funds of cultural centers, creating new ethnic studies programs, hiring three faculty of color every year and more. As students who benefit today from the history of protest and sit-ins, we must ask ourselves, how can we in one breath rebuke student “disruptions,” and in the next, enjoy the freedoms they have secured and praise the justice they have achieved?

Stanford administrators must support the Stanford 12 protesters and demand that the DA’s charges be dropped. Our petition shows that many, many agree. Dropping the charges against the Stanford 12 is not simply fueled by a recognition of past activism and present-day injustices, but also by an apt foresight into the future. If Stanford administration had this foresight, if a miraculous moment of humanitarian epiphany befell upon them, they would disclose endowment investments, divest from genocide and stand up for these protesters. Until then, student activists will keep rising — and won’t stop — until Stanford protects our right to protest.

Amanda Campos ’26 is a Public Policy and Earth Systems major, and a student activist.

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