On Friday, Nov. 9, Lowell students walked out of their Block 7 classes alongside over five other schools to demand a ceasefire in Gaza amidst the ongoing conflict. This walkout was organized independently by students across the city in support of the worldwide “Shut it Down for Palestine” campaign.
Lowell students met at Rolph Nicol Park at 2:05 p.m. before marching to City Hall. Participants were encouraged to contribute to an altar made to honor deceased Palestinians. Students were later joined by protestors from a sitout at San Francisco’s Federal Building. The walkout consisted of speeches and chants outside of City Hall, as well as a march through the surrounding area.
Protesters demanded for San Francisco schools to stop silencing student voices and to teach about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in curriculums. Junior Helena Awwad, one of the walkout’s organizers, expressed frustration at how little of the conflict’s history the general public is aware of. “I’m fed up with the idea that this is all new information,” she said. Instead, Awwad describes the conflict as a “buildup of everything [Israel has] been doing to Palestinians for the past 75 years.”
Speeches were given in protest against the violence in Gaza. During her speech, sophomore and organizer Zayna Elkarra, who is Palestinian, held her infant brother up for the crowd to see. “Does he look like a child who deserves to have his life taken from him?” she said. A sign next to his head read, “I’m a child from Gaza and I deserve to live.” Senior Dahlia K
elly compared the treatment of Palestinians to the historic killing and persecution of their own Jewish people. “I will not let my people and Israel kill thousands of Palestinian people,” they said. “Jews have been persecuted and killed for years and we cannot allow that to happen to anybody else.”
Organizers urge students to speak up against the alleged genocide in Gaza and hold public figures accountable for their complicity. “As youth we will lead the future,” organizer Mingus Blanco-Norberg said. “We are powerful, we are change makers… No one is free until we are all free.”
