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About 75 people attended a Palo Alto court hearing Thursday in support of the “Stanford 12,” a group of pro-Palestinian protesters who are facing felony charges for vandalism and conspiracy to trespass after they entered a university building during a June 2024 demonstration against the war in Gaza.
The 12 students were facing their second court hearing at the Palo Alto Courthouse since they were charged in April. The July 17 hearing concluded with the Santa Clara County Superior Court judge granting defense lawyers’ requests to continue the hearing to Aug. 1.
Following the quick pre-trial hearing, German Gonzalez, one of the students in the group of 12, stood outside the court surrounded by people who showed up to support him and his co-defendants.
Currently, the university appears to be seeking monetary restitution for the damages, but a number has not yet been decided, Gonzalez said.
“God willing, that’s all they’re asking for,” he said.
Also outside of the courthouse were dozens of officers from the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, quietly standing in bunches along the sidewalk, the parking lot and under tree-shaded areas. Before the trial, a few officers stood inside the building with their backs against the walls and watched attendees but most waited leisurely outside of the building without interacting with supporters.
At a May arraignment, hundreds showed out to protest the students’ felony charges, but Thursday’s group was much smaller.
“Out of an abundance of caution and to ensure the safety of all involved, we increased the number of uniformed deputies at the courthouse to maintain public order and prevent any unlawful activity,” county communications officer Brooks Jarosz wrote in a message to this publication.
The demonstration remained peaceful, he added.
Lotus Yee Fong, who wore a keffiyeh to the courthouse, is a lifelong San Francisco resident with grandchildren in Palo Alto. She said she believes the massive police presence was a disproportionate response.
“I’m shocked to see so much law enforcement compared to the number of us, who came to support the students who have the moral right to do what they did,” she said.
On June 5, 2024, the group of 12, including eight students, allegedly broke into Building 10, damaged property and barricaded themselves inside an office. According to the District Attorney’s Office, they broke in at about 5:30 a.m., disabled the security cameras, barricaded themselves inside the building with ladders and various furniture equipment and proceeded to record social media with various demands. They were in the building for about an hour before Stanford deputies arrested them, according to District Attorney Jeff Rosen.
The students are facing up to three years and eight months in prison after causing what the university estimated was $700,000 in damage.
The 12 protesters who are facing charges are Cameron Michael Pennington, German Gonzalez, John Thomas Richardson, Kaiden Wang, Amy Jing Zhai, Eliana Lindsay Fuchs, Gretchen Rose Giumarin, Hunter Taylor-Black, Isabella Terrazas, Maya Burke, Taylor McCann and Zoe Georgia Edelman, according to the complaint filed by the District Attorney.
The action was one of many that have occurred at Stanford University as students protested the war in Gaza, showed support for Palestine and demand that the university divest from companies like Lockheed Martin. Other efforts include a recent hunger strike and an earlier encampment at White Plaza, on campus grounds.
On the day of the hearing, students said they were disappointed in the lack of response or community involvement from Stanford officials, said university sophomore Juhae Sony, who is a part of a group advocating that Rosen and school officials drop the felony charges.
Stanford University did not respond to requests for comment from this publication.
“We were able to talk to Provost Jenny Martinez, but she would refuse to answer the question: ‘Does the school support its students?’” Sony said.
Sony believes the student body and even freshman students, who entered the university with excitement, are feeling frustrated with the school’s antagonistic approach to student demonstrations, she said.
“They continue to ask questions: Why is free speech being limited? Why is there an increased police presence on campus? Why do they refuse to respond?” she said.
Not a free speech/first amendment issue. This is an issue of vandalism. Had they did outside and protested, there would be nothing to prosecute.
Instead they choose to break in and cause damage.
Maybe someone can explain the difference to Lotus Yee and the other supporters
Mamuro is correct. They went to Stanford. These are not dummies who don’t understand consequences from actions. Lock up the criminals!
That’s nice of them to hide behind a veil of “free speech” while denying it to people who disagree with them. And it’s quite precious to fault the sheriff’s office for a “disproportionate response” that consisted only of a few deputies standing around. In these people’s minds, everything done to them is some kind of crime, but everything they do is OK. It’s justified on some imaginary moral plane, which is convenient because then they don’t have to deal with actual facts and laws.