By the end of the day of peaceful, non-violent, courteous protest, around 30 students were suspended, told they would be expelled. One parent of a suspended 16 year old told OpEdNews, that being expelled does disastrous things to a student's life. "There's trouble getting a drivers license, getting into a good college, and they can't finish high school in Illinois. "
We asked about the planning that went into the protest.
The student replied, "There were about three days of planning and we just told some people and whoever showed up showed up. It was all by word."
Here's what the student reported to OpEdNews.com, how the day proceeded at the school:
Me and a few of my friends decided to have a peace rally from 10:00 to 2:20. We made signs promoting peace out of poster board and notebook paper.
We decided to do it on that day, because it was all saints day and all saints day is a day of peace in other countries.
At 10:00 we sat down together in the lunch room. All the deans were there.
They got all the police. We all locked arms when the police arrived and they were all threatening us. The superintendent wanted us all arrested, but the police didn't do it.
They tried to make compromises with us, to move. So we decided to go to the part of the building where military recruiters are on other days. . They put "caution tape" around us.
In their compromise with us, they said they would let people come by us.
My friend had a peace shirt on, so they tried to pin the role of leadership on him. We all just said that we are there on our own free will. They asked for our Ids. All the deans were picking out people individually and bringing teachers down to identify people. One student didn't give up her ID, but she just left and nothing happened to her.
About 70 students started. Then it got down to about 30, when some got scared.
In the compromise they made with us they said there wouldn't be any consequences if we moved to that sectioni of the building.
We started chanting when they moved us and put up the caution tape and the table barricades.
Once we moved, they wouldn't let us leave, even to go to the washroom. If we walked away, we couldn't come back. But some students would talk to the deans and then go back to the protest and they didn't get in trouble. The deans were trying to get the students with the higher GPAs out. I think those are the students who aren't facing any consequences.
The superintendent's statement, included below, claims that students were asked to move outside, and told that if they did, they would not suffer consequences, but that many of the students refused and ended up, later, moving to a place near the principal's office.
