Stanford Arrests & Bans Pro-Palestine Student from Campus

Stanford, CA - On May 23, 2024 in the early afternoon, Stanford police officer Posada used lies and deception to lure a student to the police department where she was arrested and charged on unsubstantiated charges. The student was detained in the Santa Clara County Jail for several hours before being released late at night. During the time of her detainment, she was denied access to basic and urgently needed hygiene supplies and facilities. Stanford police officers Garcia and Vasquez, who arrested and transported her, made multiple inappropriate and discomforting remarks on her physical appearance. This student has been banned from campus—where she lives, works, and attends school—under threat of immediate arrest. She has not been given an opportunity since the time of her detainment to return to campus to gather her belongings, and no alternative accommodation options were communicated to her. Without the quick intervention of off-campus community members, this student would have been released from jail late at night into houselessness, with no way to contact anyone due to her phone being confiscated, and no way to travel to be with family (by the terms of her release she is not allowed to leave the county).

Stanford administration knowingly and deliberately placed this student in an incredibly precarious and dangerous situation, with zero consideration towards her physical safety or mental and emotional wellbeing.

It is especially shocking for Stanford to take such drastic and unwarranted measures against this student knowing the toll that such inflated disciplinary measures can have on students’ health and well-being. Stanford has a notorious history of employing covert yet still draconian methods of surveillance and disciplinary charges to intimidate vulnerable students, and it is unconscionable for Stanford to use these tactics towards students advocating for justice in Palestine.

The Stanford administration is justifying these egregious actions by claiming that this student is a danger to the safety of the on-campus community due to her pro-Palestine advocacy. This is an absurd claim, especially given the numerous incidents of violence and harassment that pro-Palestinian students have faced in the past several months without recourse: an Arab student was a victim of a hit-and-run hate crime and is still suffering from the long-term effects, multiple faculty members have been documented harassing students with Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian rhetoric, and more recently, off-campus Zionists physically and verbally have harassed and intimidated students both on an individual level and as members of a large rally of off-campus people. None of the students or faculty who have engaged in this harassment have faced any disciplinary charges whatsoever from Stanford. Rather than protecting the safety of the on-campus community, it is clear that the university is trying to make an example out of this student, who has been tireless and vocal in on-campus organizing over the past several months, to scare other student activists into silence.

We condemn Stanford’s use of McCarthyist repression tactics against this student. We call on the public to email and call Stanford administration and Stanford DPS to condemn their abhorrent treatment of this student and make the following demands of Stanford administration:

1. Immediately allow the student to return to her home on campus.
2. Withdraw the student’s referral to the Office of Community Standards and its disciplinary proceedings.
3. Drop unsubstantiated criminal charges.
4. Allow the student to retrieve their property in full without question.
5. Publicly apologize for placing the student in a position to be mistreated by police, rendered houseless, and without access to any resources.
6. Have Stanford DPS denounce and apologize for their mistreatment of and inappropriate comments towards the student.

Stanford Administration:
President Richard Saller:
Call - (650) 723-2481
Email - president [at] stanford.edu; rsaller [at] stanford.edu

Provost Jenny Martinez:
Call - (650) 724-4075
Email - provost [at] stanford.edu; jsmartinez [at] stanford.edu

Stanford DPS:
Call - (650) 723-9633
Email - police [at] stanford.edu