Abigail Neugeboren, News Editor
@AbigailNCourant
On December 4, students congregated outside NCHS in a peaceful protest arranged by senior class President Charlie Sosnick. Charlie used Facebook to communicate the details of the protest to the student body, which included a walk-out at 1:30 pm, a 10 minute die-in at 1:45 pm and a peaceful march to the New Canaan Police Department (NCPD) after school.
The student protest was prompted by the decision issued on December 3 by the New York Grand Jury stating that police Officer Daniel Pantaleo would not be indicted for choking an unarmed black man to death in Staten Island. After the incident was filmed by a witness in July, it became clear that the officer used an illegal chokehold method to subdue the man, Eric Garner, and the killing was ruled a homicide by the city medical examiner.
It is believed that Mr. Garner was approached by the police under the warrant of selling illegal loose cigarettes. After expressing his frustration about being repeatedly harassed by the police while minding his own business, Mr. Garner was attacked by 6 police officers and can be heard yelling, “I can’t breathe” approximately 11 times in the video before suffering a heart attack. He was proclaimed dead an hour later.
Charlie began the student protest with a short speech to an assembly of approximately 300 students. “As most of you know, last night the police officer that killed Eric Garner was not indicted by NYC Grand Jury. I know I feel, and all of you feel, that this is an absolute tragedy and a complete injustice to the life of this man, so that’s why we’re coming out here today, to show that for all of us on one day, a half hour of our schoolwork means a whole lot less than the fact that a man was unjustly killed and that his murderer received no justice.”
Charlie made his message clear to the student protesters in a series of speeches given throughout the half-hour event. “The message that we’re putting out by exiting class and coming out here is bringing justice to the life of this man. And the reason we’re out here is because all lives matter, black lives matter, white lives matter, no matter what color skin you have, your life matters.”
“And that’s why we’re out here today, because the death of this man, and the loss of his life, matters more than whatever health, or physics, or calculus we were meant to be doing for these thirty minutes. So now we’re going to let them know that all lives matter,” he said.
Civics teacher Kristine Goldhawk felt that the message of the protest should have been more narrowly defined. “I think if this protest had been more focused on the race relations I would have wanted to participate,” she said. “For example, when they were chanting ‘All lives matter’, that is what the thrust of the protest should have been about, the fact that all lives do matter, that we do have a race relations problem in this country and the only way it’s going to be solved is if your generation really steps up.”
In order to ensure the safety of the student body, administrators, multiple NCHS security guards and a NCPD officer stationed themselves around the protest.
Assistant Principal Larry Sullivan’s main priority during the protest was the student’s safety. “Everybody has a right to protest, I’m glad it’s for something other than just what affects us, but I just want to make sure everyone’s safe,” he said.
Officer Kim and other members of the administration were not able to comment at the time of the protest in order to focus on protecting school grounds and directing traffic.
Charlie also communicated the importance of organization and responsible behavior during the protest. “A couple of ground rules, we’re going to be completely respectful to everyone that comes across us, we’re not going to say any unkind words to anybody. Administration has asked that we stay out of the roadways to protect our safety,” he said.
All students who attended the protest received unexcused absences for their period 6 classes that day. Many teachers believed that this was appropriate, given the significance of the event. “The students should face the consequences. Civil disobedience means you’re willing to face the consequences because you believe there’s a cause worth standing up for,” history teacher Jessica Browner said. “The worst thing students can do in these circumstances is just use it as an excuse to get out of class because it cheapens the whole thing. If you really believe that an injustice was done and you want your voice to be heard, this is absolutely the correct way to do it.”
After the final class period concluded at 2:05 pm, Charlie invited students to march down South Avenue to continue the protest outside of the NCPD building.
Student protesters continued to chant “We can’t breathe” and “All lives matter”, and Charlie directed his speech towards the NCPD. “I wonder if, by now, the men in the window have heard our message, and hopefully they understand that we, as youth, are not going to sit down and live in a society where any one of us could be Michael Brown, or any one of our fathers could be Eric Garner, or that any one of our loved ones could be killed by a police officer and not face any sort of justice or any sort of retribution in a court of law,” he said.
Charlie concluded the protest and stressed the importance of the event in interviews with News 12 and other local
media. “It’s amazing to be able to do something like this. I know a lot of people probably don’t expect it out of kids, they think that kids don’t really watch news, that they don’t care about issues, or politics, so we came out here today to let them know that we do care and that we’re not going to stand for the fact that an innocent man was killed and that the person who killed him is not going to be tried in a court of law.”
“I think it’s important to know that what we learned today is that, as a student body, we can come together and have our collective voice heard, and I think this was a really good learning experience and inspirational moment because it was our whole school coming together for an issue,” Charlie said.
Be sure to check out the video below for the progression through the staged walk-out and march to the police station.
All photos by Hannah Kirkpatrick.
