The next pre-trial hearing will take place on February 16th, when it will be decided if new negotiations will be accepted or if a trial will begin on February 26th.

By JULISSA REYES
EL NUEVO SOL
Photo by Jusdeep Singh Sethi

It has been almost a year since four CSUN students, Jonnae Thompson, Justin Marks, José Gómez, and Anthony García, and one L.A. Valley College student, Ángel Guzmán, were arrested while demonstrating in the area surrounding the CSUN campus. CSUN Professor of Sociology, Dr. Karren Baird-Olson, also had her arm broken during the same demonstration, and she says it was the police who injured her.

It happened on March. 4, 2010, National Day of Action to Defend Education, and supporters of education demonstrated in solidarity on campuses across the nation. On the CSUN campus, a rally took place. On the steps of the Oviatt Library students and faculty voiced their concerns about the decreasing quality of education and the increasing costs passed on to students. Approximately 7,000 students attended and paraded the campus with signs, bombarding the library, classroom buildings, and even classrooms, urging those still in class to walk out. As the day progressed the protesters walked off campus and onto the city streets, an assembly that required a permit. Essentially all individuals who were blocking the Reseda and Prairie intersection could have been arrested.

Major financial cutbacks on education were what fueled these events to occur and the cutbacks have not stopped. CSUN students have probably already noticed the five percent increase in this semester’s tuition and can expect another ten percent increase in the fall, about $400 more. Governor Brown’s state budget proposal, announced in January, also warns higher education to anticipate a $1 billion cut from the University of California and California State University systems.

Now the five arrested students are in court fighting against failure-to-disperse charges brought on by CSUN police. Two are facing additional charges for allegedly resisting arrest, but Gómez faces the most controversial charge of battery. Police blame Gómez for the injuries suffered by Dr. Baird-Olson. She says it was officers who brutalized her and broke her arm, not students.

“One of the things I thought was still sacred is that you don’t beat up old ladies, grandmothers, or children,” says Baird-Olson. “If one of the theories is that I was beaten and assaulted, violently assaulted, was that because they (police) thought that if they beat up an old lady that would frighten the people. Well I’m sure, and it’s evident, it’s not going to frighten you young people because you know what’s right.”

Defense lawyers say that charges like the ones brought upon these students have become more common since Los Angeles city attorney Carmen Trutanich took office in 2009. Defense attorneys met with Trutanich to negotiate the charges against the students as to avoid a trial. Trutanich offered negotiations for all the students except Gómez. The students declined the offer.

The CSUN 6, as the five students and professor are known, have received much support from fellow students, professors, and community organizations such as Todos Somos Arizona (We Are All Arizona). Supporters could be found sitting in the courtroom and rallying outside the courthouse at the group’s court date Friday Jan. 21. Among the supporters sitting in the courtroom was CSUN professor Rudy Acuña, another figure who has been caught in an education controversy in Arizona regarding his book Occupied America.

“I’m here because of the injustice,” Acuña said outside the courtroom. “This is racist. Every person arrested is a person of color.”

The students’ next pre-trial hearing is February 16th, when it will be decided if new negotiations will be accepted or if a trial will begin on February 26th. All the students face a possible six months of incarceration, with Gómez possibly facing the longest sentence of one year.

Tags:  Ángel Guzmán Anthony García Carmen Trutanich CSUN CSUN 6 Jonnae Thompson José Gómez Julissa Reyes Jusdeep Singh Sethi Justin Marks Karren Baird-Olson March. 4 2010 Rudy Acuña Students