The Jacksonville Community Action Committee Stands with Rick Toledo

Rick Toledo is a graduate student and organizer with Cal Poly Humboldt’s (CPH) Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). On February 27, 2026, Toledo participated in a protest to support the Palestinian people and demand campus divestment from Israeli apartheid. On March 6, 2026, CPH university police officers raided Toledo’s home and took him into custody without bail. He has yet to be officially charged, but he is facing four counts of felony charges: false imprisonment, conspiracy to commit a crime, assault, and battery. These charges carry up to 14 years in state prison. Rob Bonta, California’s Attorney General signed off on the university’s civil lawsuit complaint against Toledo. Days prior, Toledo was suspended and fired from his university teaching job. He is scheduled to appear in court on April 20, 2026.

In addition to Toledo and fellow student organizers holding a one-day building occupation for Palestine, they have also demanded sanctuary policies to keep ICE off campus, and they have supported striking workers in their fight for higher wages. The Jacksonville Community Action Committee (JCAC) believes that Toledo did nothing wrong in demanding dignity for oppressed peoples. We stand in solidarity with our fellow organizers struggling for a more just world, and we call on all people of conscience to join us in expressing that protesting is not a crime!

Just as Jacksonville’s Students for a Democratic Society bravely led the 2024 efforts in the spring encampment movement for Gaza, Cal Poly Humboldt students did the same. And just as Jacksonville’s SDS faced severe repression from the University of North Florida, Cal Poly Humboldt students have endured the same backwards attacks. It appears that Cal Poly Humboldt has chosen Toledo as their target, and they are using his case to fear monger students into complacency.

The JCAC stood in unwavering solidarity with Jacksonville SDS during the 2024 spring encampment, then in continued solidarity with the Jax 16, which comprised the 16 people arrested during this encampment. We extend this same solidarity to Rick Toledo today, and we commend the student movement for their commitment to the Palestinian people.

The JCAC condemns all forms of racist and political repression. We reject trumped up charges that seek to invoke fear among those who stand with the oppressed people of the world. We acknowledge that a threat to one of us is a threat to all of us, so we are proud to answer the call from our fellow NAARPR affiliate, The Committee to Stop FBI Repression, in issuing this statement of solidarity.