UPDATED
A dozen pro-Palestinian students activists who were arrested after they took over and occupied Stanford University President Richard Saller’s office earlier this week face “felony burglary” charges, the Stanford Daily reported Friday morning.
“Students were suspended and banned from campus for the rest of the quarter until June 12, as the University processes disciplinary referrals to the Office of Community Standards,” the student newspaper reported. “Any who are seniors will not be allowed to graduate. Bail for arrested individuals was set to $20,000.”
“After entering the building at around 5:30 a.m., protesters blocked doors and windows with bike locks, chains, ladders and chairs and covered security cameras with tin foil. No administrators or staff were present inside when protesters entered. They occupied the office for under two hours before they were removed by SUDPS and escorted away in vans,” the Daily reported.
Videos posted on social media from the chaotic scene show vandalism and graffiti peppering the administrative building held hostage by the activists. Outside, community members and other student demonstrators surrounded the building and chanted “free, free Palestine” and “no justice, no peace.”
Police were forced to use a mallet and break into the facility through doors and windows to extract the students, videos show.
“Burn this shit down,” “kill cops” and “death 2 Isr@hell” were among the vandalism spray painted on Stanford’s walls.
Liberate Stanford, which helped lead the takeover, posted on Instagram that students are not responsible for the vandalism and spray paint of the office, blaming it on “an autonomous group of community members.”
“Thirteen individuals were arrested inside Building 10 this morning,” Stanford president Richard Saller and provost Jenny Martinez wrote in a message to the campus community on Wednesday, as reported by Algemeiner.
“In addition to going through the law enforcement process, any arrested individuals who are students will be immediately suspended. Any seniors will not be allowed to graduate.”
Before being arrested, student activists occupying the president’s office broadcasted their demands, including that the board of trustees discuss divestment from Israel this month and amnesty for all student protesters on Stanford’s campus.
The 13 arrested protesters include eight females and five males, according to a copy of the arrest log provided to The College Fix by Stanford’s Department of Public Safety spokesman. Nine are undergrads, including one students who was reportedly there on behalf of the student newspaper, the Daily.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Added information provided to The Fix by Stanford.
MORE: Police arrest pro-Palestinian activists barricaded in Stanford president’s office
IMAGES: social media
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