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Alameda High School Walkout
By Caitlin Grey
No soccer team next year. Or AP classes. Or spring musical. Yesterday morning when I got to school, I found out that every sport at my high school had been cut except football, baseball, softball, and basketball. The night before, there had been a rally at Chipman Middle School where a Board Meeting was being held, and by the end of the night (it didn’t end until 1:30 in the morning) they had made the final decision on budget cuts. Obviously this stepped on a few toes—or a few hundred. By break time at Alameda High, around 11 a.m., hundreds of Encinal High students came streaming down the street and through our school.
They had walked miles and miles across the entire island after a spontaneous walkout, carrying signs with slogans like “No sports, no school” and “I hate Arnold”. My friend and I followed them to the front of Kofman Auditorium, a huge hall in the middle of downtown. I found some of my other friends and when I looked around again, I saw HUNDREDS of students. Probably over 800 had gathered around the steps of Kofman, around a trash can that speakers were standing on top of, leading chants with a megaphone, and making powerful speeches.
“We’re part of something bigger,” Alameda High School swim captain Bobby Chang said.
“We need to pass the parcel tax—volunteer at a phone bank, go door to door, do whatever you need to,” shouted Ian Merrifield, Encinal High student body president.
“I will fight with all the power I have for these programs” screamed Ben Ulrey, representative from Alameda Youth Committee and a senior at Alameda High school.
News crews were everywhere, I saw the local afiiliates of ABC, NBC, and CBS. Helicopters were flying around, and cameras were everywhere I looked. People I had known since kindergarten chanted around me, along with students from Encinal that I had never even seen before. The place was so crowded I hardly had a square foot to myself, and even though I felt cramped and uncomfortable, it felt good. People behind me were screaming and yelling into my ears, but soon enough the crowd was silenced when our school principal, Mr. Mike Janvier, came and announced that they were going to open Kofman Auditorium, so we could go in, ask questions, and listen to more speakers.
“We need student representatives to meet with the superintendent!,” he yelled, and team captains, athletes, ASB, and student council reps made their way to the front of the crowd. Soon, as the doors to the auditorium opened, there was a mad rush, and the hundreds of kids flooded into the hall. As my friends and I took our seats, chants continued.
“No sports, no school!”
“Hell no, sports won’t go!”
“Everywhere we go, everywhere we go, people wanna know, people wanna know…”
Soon the crowd calmed down as superintendent Ardella Dailey took the stage, along with Coach Thomas, the Alameda High School athletic director, and Kevin Gorham, Encinal High’s athletic director. Dozens of student reps sat in chairs behind the adults, as they all delivered short speeches.
“We need to email Arnold! Email your representatives! Your congressman! SPAM THEM!” yelled Jain Thapa, the boys’ cross country team captain.
“Arnold may be strong but he’s not as strong as us!” said Kevin Gorham.
We heard people speak for almost an hour, and the crowd responded 100 percent. Soon, a leadership class student announced a trip to Sacramento within the next few weeks, and the crowd dispersed. It was 15 minutes before lunch let out, and I’m not gonna lie, I was JUICED.
During the off-campus lunch, Encinal High students flooded downtown, and I heard ambulances and saw police cars. The whole street in front of Kofman had been blocked off.
WAAAAAAAAY more exciting than learning about synthetic division in pre-cal. TO LIKE THE BAJILLIONTH POWER!!!!!
Although there wasn’t much of a conclusion to the protest, we definitely got the media attention we needed. I saw the back of my head on the news four times! And I heard the screams of my classmates on the radio! But the truth is, in a way we were preaching to the choir. People were getting angry at our principal, and booing at the superintendent for cutting the programs. But they’re forgetting what the real problem is. The Alameda Unified School District has no choice—they must make the cuts, sure, people can get angry about WHAT cuts they MAKE, but they’ll have to cut something, whether it’s soccer or basketball, art or music, AP exams or class sizes, hard decisions have to be made. But the root of the problem goes all the way back to Sacramento. People forget that we’re in a huge deficit, and the Governor Schwarzenegger, whether he got us in or not, has to get us out.
Although I’m only 16 and I can’t remember many political actions before a few years ago, I can’t EVER remember any cuts that affected everyday people so incredibly much. These cuts affect everyone-if you’re not a student in a public school, you’ve gotta know someone that is, a cousin, a friend, or maybe you live nearby your city’s local high school. It seems like if anyone is going to make cuts, they should be made farthest away from the students, either at the administrative level, or the government pay checks, or in programs that are going to waste. Because after all, as the crowd chanted yesterday, causing the ringing in my ears I still have a day and a half later,
“We ARE the future.”
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