On February 15, 2007, over 700 students walked out of their
classes at Lowell High, the oldest and largest public high school in San Francisco. Students and teachers spoke at an impassioned
mass speakout in the school’s courtyard. Spirits were high and resistance was
in the air.
Senior Gordo Johengen from Revolution Youth — the student
group that organized the protest on one day’s notice — led the crowd in a
chant of “Cut the Funds!” A teacher whose son is serving in Iraq denounced
the war, as well as the Democratic Party’s refusal to call for cutting the war
funds.
Due to the extremely high energy of the crowd, a spontaneous
student march was called. Despite a heavy police presence, over 100 students took
the city streets and marched for over an hour. A student petition to Nancy
Pelosi, demanding that she cut all the war funding and bring the troops home
immediately, was circulated and will be presented to her office at a city-wide
rally at the Federal
Building on February 22
at 4:30.
This was the first protest for many of these students – but
judging from today’s extraordinary energy, it won’t be the last.
