Stanford Student Newspaper Editors Call for Charges Against Reporter to Be Dropped

The editor of Stanford University’s student newspaper is calling on school leadership to drop felony charges and rescind a suspension against a reporter who was arrested while covering a Pro-Palestinian protest this week.

In the early morning hours on Wednesday, a group of Stanford students and activists entered and barricaded themselves inside the office of Stanford’s president. The group said it wants the school to divest from companies tied to Israel’s military assault on the Gaza Strip, among other demands.

Officials said they found damage inside the building, and the sandstone exterior of the building and others around it in the main quad area was graffitied with messages including “kill cops,” “death to Israel,” and “free Palestine.”

In a statement issued Friday afternoon, Kaushikee Nayudu, the editor-in-chief and president of The Stanford Daily, said one of the paper’s reporters, Dilan Gohill, was present to cover the demonstration.

“He identified himself as a member of the press multiple times. He continued to stress this information — and showed his press pass to officers he engaged with — at the (Stanford University Department of Public Safety) station and Santa Clara County Jail,” Nayudu said.

She added that officers he interacted with “acknowledged and noted his role as a reporter,” but he was nevertheless arrested and booked into Santa Clara County Main Jail on a felony charge of burglary with intent to commit a crime.

“He did not participate in the construction of barricades or vandalism and explicitly told protesters he would not assist since he was present as reporter,” Nayudu said. “We hope the university will lift his suspension and urge the DA’s office to drop the charges against him.”

Nayudu and other editors of the paper, in an opinion piece published Wednesday, said arresting Gohill was a violation of his First Amendment and Fourth Amendment rights. “We are appalled at this threat to the freedom of the press.”

The paper’s editors also said a second Daily staffer, an editor, was present in the president’s office to participate in the protest but was not there in a journalistic capacity. They noted that she has not been involved in coverage related to the Israel-Gaza war “due to an established conflict of interest on this issue.”

Nayudu said Friday that the editor who participated in the protest has since stepped down from her position.

All 13 people arrested were charged with the same crime, according to an arrest log from the university, and were held on $20,000 bail for much of Wednesday. A spokesperson for the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, Brooks Jarosz, said Friday that all of those arrested were released.

Most of those arrested were released without having to pay bail in exchange for agreeing to conditions of their release, while others chose to post the bail and not agree to the conditions, Jarosz said.

It’s unclear when those arrested will be arraigned in court. A spokesperson for the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, Sean Webby, said the office hadn’t yet received the cases from the Stanford Department of Public Safety.

In a previous statement, Stanford President Richard Saller and Provost Jenny Martinez said all students who were inside the office and arrested would be suspended, and any of them who are seniors would not be allowed to graduate.

“These actions are necessary based on the public safety threat posed to our campus community,” the statement read. “The situation on campus has now crossed the line from peaceful protest to actions that threaten the safety of our community,” the statement said.

A school spokesperson, Dee Mostofi, did not respond to questions about whether the school intends to continue to press charges against Gohill and maintain his suspension.

Following the arrests at the president’s office, the university on Wednesday also dismantled a pro-Palestinian protest encampment that had been set up weeks earlier on a central plaza. In their statement, Saller and Martinez said the encampment violated multiple university policies and again cited an interest in public safety as a reason to clear it.

Natalie Zahr, an assistant professor at Stanford and a member of the group Stanford Faculty for Justice in Palestine, said she feels the university leadership’s characterization of the protests and occupation has been overblown.

“I don’t see how anybody’s endangered,” Zahr said. “I mean, yes, there might have been vandalism, but I’m sorry people are getting killed” in the Israel-Gaza war, she said.

She also cast doubt on whether the students behind the occupation were also responsible for graffiti on campus building exteriors and said $20,000 bail for those arrested is excessive.

Zahr said she wrote a note to Saller on Wednesday asking for “due process” and for him to “clearly find out who was involved in doing what” before he decided on punishments for students.

Overall, she said she’s proud of students speaking out and taking action on the issue.

“They invigorated an apathetic population, including me,” she said. “I’m just praying that this will be over soon.”