200 Oakland High School Students Walk Out: Determined to Be Heard
December 16, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From a reader:
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Monday, December 15—Students from a number of different high schools in Oakland, supported by many teachers including Bay Area Educators Against Police Brutality, organized a powerful walkout and protest today against police brutality. Students walked out and gathered at 3:30 at the Fruitvale BART station in Oakland (the station where Oscar Grant was killed by a cop in 2009). About 200 students walked out from different schools in Oakland: Oakland High, Oakland School for the Arts, Skyline, Oakland Tech, Met West, Arise, Life Academy, and others. It was mostly Black and Latino students, but there were also a number of Pacific Islander and white students.
The youth were very energized and immediately took charge of the protest with bullhorns and a microphone, determined that today the youth will be heard! A Black student from Skyline said his best friend was killed by the police—he's tired of it, and he doesn’t want to go through that again. Another student spoke about not wanting to see another mother cry for their dead child. He said it shouldn’t happen that the children die before the parents. A number of students expressed the importance of different races standing together today, that this is something everyone should care about.
After the short rally, students did a die-in front of the BART station, then took off on a fast, loud, and joyous march all the way to Lake Merritt (which is a long way!). All along the way, students got a lot of love from drivers and people on the sidelines.
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