World Can’t Wait ⢠305 W Broadway #185, NY, NY 10013 ⢠866-973-4463
www.worldcantwait.org
November 18, 2005
For Immediate Release
Contact: Connie Julian at 866-973-4463, ext 4, press@worldcantwait.org
A short distance from Belmont High
School in Los Angeles, Geovany Serrano, a 16-year old Belmont student
sits under house arrest. He wears an ankle bracelet and his phone
service is monitored. Two weeks ago, Geovany was pepper-sprayed and
arrested; now he faces serious criminal charges and was recently
transferred against his will to another school. All this because
Geovany Serrano was handing out leaflets at Belmont High School telling
students about the nationwide walk-outs on November 2nd.
Something
big is happening in the high schools in LA. Geovany is one of thousands
of students who answered the call of people like Howard Zinn, Gore
Vidal, Eve Ensler, Jonathan Kozol, Harold Pinter, Jane Fonda, Ozomatli,
Tom Morello, Rickie Lee Jones and many others to join a movement to
drive out the Bush regime and fight for the future of humanity. It’s a
movement that won’t stop until Bush is gone. It has captured the
imaginations and hearts of high school students, including vast numbers
from the poorest communities.
Geovany
Serrano: “Look at the war in Iraq. There are jails where there are
people that the government just wants to disappear. They have them
there and are torturing them or putting them on leashes. They’re
bombing the shit out of people’s houses. They’re trying to have this
Christian fascism and make the Bible the law and not letting women do
what they want with their bodies. They don’t want to allow homosexuals
and lesbians to just be. We’re headed into a society where if you don’t
follow a certain way, you’re going to be eliminated. When I first got
into this it hit me so hard. It’s hard to go back to living a regular
day. Even going to sleep, knowing that there are people that are being
killed and victimized by this system is difficult. Is that the world
that I want? No. I don’t want none of that.”
Geovany’s
case is a very serious example of retribution, but it is also one of
many that have been reported in Los Angeles( from school lockdowns and
assaults on students prior to November 2nd to suspensions, threats of
expulsion, forced transfers and outrageously expensive tickets levied
against the students. The students have refused to back down in the
face of all this and they are demanding: no retribution, reprisals or
punishment of any sort, and reversal of any punishment that has already
been meted out. The students are receiving citywide support from their
parents, their communities, progressive lawyers, teachers and many
others. They plan to spread this movement from school to school and
community to community in preparation for the next big step in driving
out the Bush regime ( massive demonstrations to politically ‘drown out’
the 2006 State of the Union speech.
The
persecution of LA high school students is part of a wider phenomenom
nationally. For example, fifty students in Sayville High School in Long
Island were suspended for walking out after the Pledge of Allegiance on
November 2.
Interviews are available with the students who took part, World
Can’t Wait spokespeople, or individuals who added their name to the
call for November 2nd, such as historian Howard Zinn (Mr. Zinn taped a
message to students and youth in particular, encouraging them to take
part in the movement to drive out the Bush regime, which began on
November 2) . Contact Connie Julian at 866-973-4463, ext 4.