Three University of South Florida (USF) students, one alum, and one community member are currently fighting felony charges after protesting against Florida’s defunding of diversity and inclusion programs (DEI) at their Tampa school. Participants of a March 6, 2023 Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society (TBSDS) protest to fight against the state’s attack on higher education, Chrisley Carpio, 31; Gia Davila, 22; Laura Rodriguez, 23; Lauren Pineiro, 23; and Jeanie Kida, 26 — now known as the Tampa 5 — could each face between 6 and 11 years in prison if convicted of felony charges of battery on a law enforcement officer. The Tampa 5 say they are innocent of all charges.

On that fateful day, the protesters, many of them Latina, spoke out against Florida’s House Bill 999, which seeks to ban gender studies and critical race theory and related fields like queer theory, critical race theory, feminist theory, and social justice in colleges and universities across the state. They also demanded an increase in Black enrollment and a commitment to the future of DEI programs at USF after president Rhea Law had paused the search for a vice president for the DEI office. The protesters saw a connection between Governor Ron DeSantis’ crackdown on what he calls “woke culture” and political repression in Florida.

At the protest, demonstrators requested a meeting with Law to demand the protection of DEI programs at their university. As the group moved into the lobby of Law’s office, the USF police force violently escalated the situation when trying to remove the protesters from campus.

“The protesters saw a connection between Governor Ron DeSantis’ crackdown on what he calls ‘woke culture’ and political repression in Florida.”

In footage that TBSDS posted on Instagram, police campus chief Christopher Daniel talks to students and then grabs Davila by the arm before throwing her to the ground. Davila alleges that once she was on the floor, Daniel groped her for several seconds. From that moment on, protesters allege that police started grabbing students and blocking their exit from the building; the group tried to de-escalate the situation.

“It was a pretty standard protest,” Lauren Pineiro, now an alumna of the university, tells Refinery29 Somos. “We were just chanting, holding signs, and we marched to the president’s office. So we were inside the lobby of that office, her office is on the fourth floor, and we were on the first floor. And I was the last one to get into the building, and by the time I got in, there were already like 15 police officers waiting for us, and they pretty immediately started to brutalize students. They arrested four people at the time.”

That day, police charged Carpio, Davila, Rodriguez, and Kida with battery against a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest without violence, and disrupting a school or campus function. Police later charged Pineiro with the same felony charges as the other protesters, and she turned herself into the police on May 3, 2023. In the video TBSDS posted, the officer grabs Pineiro’s wrists as she struggles to get free.

“The police officers just continued to escalate the situation by punching students, kicking students, slamming students on the ground, pushing us against walls.”

“I was one of the first people in the building, and when we got in the building, I didn’t see any police officers. Within a matter of two minutes, I remember turning around and seeing about 15 of them behind me, and there was also a police dog,” Rodriguez tells Somos. “It escalated really, really quickly because the police chief grabbed a student and that caused everybody to step forward, and then the police officers just continued to escalate the situation by punching students, kicking students, slamming students on the ground, pushing us against walls.”

According to Rodriguez, police took the four people to another location on campus and kept them in police cars for three hours without air-conditioning on a day that reached 86°F. After police took them to jail and charged them, the four women paid their bail. Officers held them for five hours after their arrival. The Tampa 5, with the help and solidarity of TBSDS, have been campaigning to prove their innocence, but the charges have nonetheless affected their daily lives and put a significant financial strain on their families.

“It’s definitely been difficult for all of us,” Pineiro says. “We have raised a decent amount, which helps, but a lot of people lost their jobs, and I was a student at the time. Now, I’m trying to find a job, and it’s extremely hard because I have an arrest record and one of those being a felony charge, and it’s open, and I’m gonna need a lot of time off for this trial. So it’s been a financial burden. And obviously it has been very emotionally distressing; I watched my friends get beat. I watched them get arrested. All because we were standing up for diversity on campus, which I think was the right thing to do, and I don’t think we did anything wrong on that day.”

“It has been very emotionally distressing; I watched my friends get beat. I watched them get arrested. All because we were standing up for diversity on campus, which I think was the right thing to do, and I don’t think we did anything wrong on that day.”

Carpio, the only staff member who police arrested in the protest, also lost her job with the university shortly after the incident. The Tampa 5 allege the firing was in retaliation for the protest. The University of South Florida maintains it dismissed her for “violating several university policies and standards.”

“Chrisley had a perfect record. She’s never even had a warning against her, and she’s worked there for more than eight years, and they put her on probation and then they ultimately fired her,” Rodriguez says. “She’s been trying to find a job, but it’s hard to balance the time off that we need to continue organizing because that’s what we do. This isn’t a one-off event. We attend protests, and we organize events very often.”

Citing the Florida 4, a group of reproductive rights activists that are facing up to 10 years in prison for allegedly spray-painting anti-abortion centers following the overturning of Roe v. Wade last year, Pineiro suggests that this issue is larger than firings and students being brutalized on campus. It’s about the freedom to oppose and protest right-wing policies that seek to limit the civil rights of women and other marginalized groups.

“DeSantis has been attacking our rights on every front [since he came into office], and the people of Florida are not being silent about this,” Pineiro says. “We’re seeing protests every day across the state. People who are rightly upset by these bills, who are making their voices heard, saying that they do not agree with DeSantis, and I think that’s why we’re seeing so much political repression happening right now.”

“DeSantis has been attacking our rights on every front [since he came into office], and the people of Florida are not being silent about this.”

Both Rodriguez and Pineiro point out that DeSantis’ attacks on political freedom — which target LGBTQ rights, DEI initiatives, education on Black history, reproductive rights, and immigrants — in Florida have spread to the rest of the country, with copycat bills of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” legislation and others tackling DEI efforts seeking to enforce similar bans and political repression in other states. While this kind of suppression isn’t new, DeSantis seems to be succeeding in providing a playbook for other red states that seek to oppose the so-called “woke” culture supposedly taking over the US. The danger, Pineiro says, is that other lawmakers will effectively use these tactics in other parts of the country.

“This isn’t just about us; this isn’t about five individuals. This is about an entire movement,” Pineiro says. “Our case could set a very dangerous precedent for free speech in Florida, and especially on college campuses across the board. I think people need to pay attention because this is bigger than us, because this protest was against DeSantis and all of the policies he’s pushing, which is not just the Florida issue, but a national issue considering he’s running for president.”

Next month, Pineiro and Carpio will go on a speaking tour across the US to talk about their experiences with political repression and organizing. They hope to raise awareness on the issue as they wait for their trial, which should begin in December of 2023.