BUZZ
ANALYSIS: Despite school and White House condemnation of event, similar protests have a long history in the U.S.
A group of students at San Pablo, California’s Contra Costa College engaged in a “decapitation” of a Donald Trump piñata, which appeared to be celebrated by one of the school’s counselors.
According to Fox News, the X account Libs of TikTok posted video of a person in a blindfold approaching a Trump figurine — donned in a “blue suit, red baseball cap and holding a sign that reads ‘F— ICE'” — and then beheading it.
The event reportedly occurred “a few months ago,” but the video surfaced “just last week.” It “appear[ed] to be overseen” by Lorena Gonzalez, currently listed as a counselor at Contra Costa.
In the video, following the figurine’s beheading another individual “picks up the decapitated piñata and raises it above his head as he is met with cheers from the group of students.” Gonzalez raises her arms above her head in a celebratory manner.
According to the Contra Costa College student paper The Advocate, Hispanics comprise just under half of the school’s total student body.
In a statement, the college told Libs of TikTok it does not “condone or allow violent political rhetoric,” and added the incident had been “addressed as a personnel matter.”
Neither the college nor Gonzalez responded to Fox News for comment. However, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told the outlet “Anyone who engages in or endorses political violence or assassination culture must be condemned in the harshest terms possible.”
Ingle added such individuals should “immediately seek psychiatric help to treat their severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has warped their brains and made them sick in the head.”
SCOOP: We just received videos of a disturbing event that took place on campus at Contra Costa College in CA
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 15, 2026
Students were directed to hit a Trump piñata until they decapitated it. Lorena Gonzalez, a counselor at the college, appeared to be overseeing it. After beheading the… pic.twitter.com/q18DThkOQE
Despite the statements by the school and Ingle, effigy-style protests have a long political history in the U.S. Referencing a separate incident last year, Washington University School of Law in St. Louis Professor Greg Magarian said such depictions of political figures “are generally protected speech.”
“That’s what effigies are,” Magarian said. “It’s a form of speech that goes way back. Whatever you might think of it, it is protected by the First Amendment.”
In early 2017 a Trump figure was hung in effigy and was deemed protected by the First Amendment. Three years later, an effigy of Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear was hung without criminal charges being filed.
University of Louisville Law Professor Samuel Marcosson noted of the latter that “the government would have to show that it was intended as a threat […] not just that it was perceived as a threat by other people.”
In addition to counseling, Gonzalez is involved in “La Raza Studies” and “Ethnic Studies” according to a 2026 Ethnic Studies Summit page. At that summit, Gonzalez shared “community-centered teaching and learning educational practices” from her course “Intro to Psychology of La Raza,” which also served as the “foundation” for the student club Concilio de La Comunidad.
Ironically, two years ago Gonzalez criticized a widely publicized joke about Puerto Rico by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe. At a Trump campaign rally, Hinchcliffe had referred to the island as a “floating island of garbage.”
Gonzalez told the Advocate the 2024 election was “an extension” of the joke, saying Puerto Rico “is still in 2024 a colony of the United States that continues to be abandoned by the U.S. government and its politicians in times of need […] despite the U.S. citizenship provided to Puerto Ricans.”
