VIDEO: NYC High Schoolers Plan Walkout

Students at Paul Robeson High School in New York City plan on taking part in Occupy’s May Day activities by staging a massive walkout today at noon EST.

A couple of weeks ago, they unleashed a short but devastating video that lays bare their dissatisfaction with New York’s public education system.

Like the students at Detroit’s Western International High School, or the Bronx students who released their ten-point plan last year, the young people at Paul Robeson High are standing up and DEMANDING the quality education they deserve.

Will you stand with them?

From Salon.com

“‘Dear New York City. We the students of public education are here to inform you of the injustice that is taking place in our school system,’ he begins, surrounded by members of the school’s student leadership, some staring defiantly into the camera with arms crossed. After listing student grievances including the privatization of the public school system, budget cuts, school closures against community wishes and over-policing in schools, the young man announces the May Day walkout to nearby Fort Greene park in Brooklyn.

It would be easy to dismiss high-schoolers’ plans to participate in May Day actions — which included calls for ‘No School’ alongside those of ‘No Work’ — as an excuse to skip class. But the video from Paul Robeson High shows a politically aware and angry student body, which is keenly drawing connections between educational policy and broader political issues — most notably the production of racist systems. Their announcement connects the criminalization of schoolchildren to the institutionalized racism displayed in the case of Trayvon Martin’s killing.”

Read more at Salon.com

Check out the video below:

Do you support the students’ plan to stage a walkout tomorrow?

How can we ensure that our youth are receiving the education they deserve?

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