Tampa, FL – On Tuesday, October 1, around six students who are members of Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society at the University of South Florida, took a stand. They attempted to have a rally demanding free speech on campus for pro-Palestine protests.

Students gathered to begin the rally when Dean of Students Danielle McDonald stopped the students and prevented the rally from happening. Though no event was happening, the dean, along with campus security and police threatened students with trespasses and arrests for simply being on campus. She refused to allow students to leave without handing over their student ID cards. Two students at the attempted rally, Isabella Deschene and Saba Indawala, have now been suspended, trespassed, and have bogus code of conduct charges alleged against them.

This comes after intensified political repression faced by Tampa Bay SDS after leading the solidarity encampment for Gaza at USF. After being tear-gassed and shot at with rubber bullets by the university and police, Tampa Bay SDS was expelled by USF for leading this struggle for Palestine on their campus. Additionally, two members of SDS faced severe punishment from USF for organizing the encampment for Palestine. Victoria Hinckley, who was a senior at the school, was expelled and the school continues to withhold their degree. Joseph Charry, an international student from Colombia, was suspended for a year and was stripped of his student visa and forced to leave the country.

Now, five months after the encampment, Tampa Bay SDS continues to fight for these sanctions against students to be reversed, for USF’s immediate divestment from Israel and now for freedom of speech on campus. The university has passed harsh, restrictive policies on free speech. The student movement remains strong and students on campus have and will continue to fight against this political repression from the USF administration.

Isabella Deschene, one of the newly-suspended SDS members, says “this was yet another blatant act of repression and will not stop students from continuing to fight for what we believe in. We will continue advocating for free speech and protesting the genocide in Gaza. We will continue to call out USF’s complicity and their disregard for the student body’s demands to disclose and divest.”

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