LSUPD arrested seven students during the presidential search committee meeting on Wednesday morning. One student was transferred to East Baton Rouge Parish Jail and was released on a $1,000 bond Wednesday evening.

The EBR Sheriff’s Office told the Reveille that Gabriela Juárez, a junior, was charged with resisting an officer and interfering with an educational practice. Her court hearing is Thursday afternoon.

Enola Guyer, a senior majoring in animal sciences, was charged with resisting an officer, obstruction of highway commerce and prohibiting an educational practice.

The other five students were arrested for resisting an officer and obstruction of highway commerce. Those students were Ziad Eissa, Ryan Spalt, Scott Sonnier, Carson Wall and Margo Wilson. They, along with Guyer, were released by LSUPD with a misdemeanor and a future court date.

Juárez was physically removed from the building by two LSU police officers after she went over her allotted three minutes for her public comment. She said she would keep talking, which violated the public comment rules and started calling the committee members fascists.

As she was pulled by the police officers she shouted obscenities and asked repeatedly, “Am I being detained?”

The situation escalated as she left the building while the rest of the students followed, chanting “shame on you” to the board members. Once outside, the six other students were arrested after they reportedly blocked an LSUPD vehicle from leaving with Juárez.

No one was physically hurt during the arrests.

“LSU fully supports lawful free expression,” university spokesperson Todd Woodward said in a statement Wednesday regarding the incident. “Despite multiple warnings to adhere to the posted rules — specifically yielding the floor when the time expired — one individual exceeded the time limit, refused lawful directives and was subsequently arrested for violating La. R.S. 14:329.5.”

LSU also said its priority in the matter was “the safety of all participants and the orderly conduct of university functions.”

What led to the escalation

Before the situation escalated, the students participated in the public comment session of the meeting and spoke about their frustrations and disgust toward the committee.

The students were members of the Students for a Democratic Society, and many of them wore T-shirts that said “No MAGA President.” The students expressed their belief that many of the committee’s members were selected because of their proximity to Gov. Jeff Landry and that the committee lacked diversity.

SDS members passed out a document to committee members that listed three demands to make the presidential selection process more inclusive of student opinion.

The document called for five current LSU students to the committee elected by the student body. Another demand was for the committee to hold at least three public meetings to update the student body on the selection process. Finally, SDS requested the committee allow the student body to participate in a ranked-choice vote once the final candidates are selected.

“This committee cannot and will not represent the interests of LSU students unless we are the ones sitting on this board and unless we have a direct say in who the presidential candidates will be,” said Ziad Eissa, a sophomore majoring in film and television, during his public comment.

Wilson, the SDS president, connected the group’s critiques of the search committee to the removal and firing of LSU Law professor Ken Levy and the university’s removal of diversity from its websites and programming, saying she thinks these indicate priorities that oppose student interests.

“These are business owners that are just stakeholders in the university, and what the makeup of the search committee shows us is that LSU is a business, it is not a school, and they are not beholden to student interest. They are beholden to Jeff Landry and the interest of their shareholders,” Wilson said.

Shortly after the students were arrested, two members of SDS who were also at the meeting held a press conference in front of the LSU Police Department building.

“I think that it’s absurd to have dragged somebody out of a room for speaking over their allotted time in a public comment,” Wilson said.

Juárez also attracted controversy in September after the Republican Party of Louisiana reposted a screenshot of her Instagram story where she said “Rejoice” in response to Turning Point USA’s founder Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

“University leaders must hold their students accountable – violence and the celebration of evil have no place on our campus,” the Republican Party of Louisiana’s post read.

Wilson told the Reveille Wednesday night she thought that incident “emboldened the police to act against her.”

SDS’ plans from here

At SDS’ weekly meeting later Wednesday, Wilson addressed the arrests and discussed future plans. Wilson said SDS will continue their “No MAGA President” campaign despite the arrests.

Wilson outlined what she called a “heavy-handed” defense campaign following the arrests at the meeting.

The club posted on its Instagram encouraging students to join a “Phone Zap” campaign to mass call EBRSO and demand Juárez’s release, something Wilson echoed at the meeting.

SDS member Zane Sutor-Benfield said there were about 10 to 20 members protesting Juárez’s arrest outside the EBR Parish Prison since Juárez was admitted into holding there Wednesday night.

SDS next plans to create a GoFundMe to raise money for the arrested students’ legal fees and Juárez’s bond. Wilson also said she will be posting her court dates publicly to encourage SDS attendance.

“We’re going to keep fighting this, every step of the way,” Sutor-Benfield said.

SDS previously planned to hold a rally on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. against Landry’s call for deployment of the National Guard to Louisiana. The rally will still be held but will now be in opposition to police violence.