TLDR: Victory!

I decided that there isn't enough time to organize, so there can't be a class walkout this Friday. I thought to myself that today, I suppose a lunch walkout is better than nothing.

Leading up to lunch, I heard sentiments buzzing around me. Kids were infuriated at the traitor co-organizer. They angrily said this wasn't a walkout, this was capitulation to admin, the very administration we were meant to be protesting. People noted that someone, me, had tried to organize a 4pd walkout, but that admin was repressing it.

Most kids didn't show up to my traitor co-organizer's walkout. Only 20-30 kids showed up. Most boycotted, consciously or subconsciously, her capitulated walkout. Suddenly, a kid with her grabbed one of her megaphones and shouted, "Admin tried to repress our class walkout. So we're going to march anyway, no matter what they say." The kids got fired up and began marching. This was lunchtime. What issue could there be?

My traitor co-organizer had planned to march on the track around the field. You know, the secluded location nobody goes to except to vape beneath the bleachers next to them? Where trees block the view of the school from the roads, where nothing will happen. Secluded, on-campus, contained. It was the plan admin had approved for this lunch walkout.

Despite seeing the majority of kids, the few who were willing to give her an ounce of support after her endless self-centered arrogance and capitulation, wanted to actually march, out of what I can only guess to be shame or embarrassment, she quietly and silently slipped away with a small number of students (curiously including the kids who ruthlessly bullied me over Palestine in sophomore and junior year...), and separated from the main group. She abandoned her protestors and went to the track. She saw that I was leading the group of passionate kids, and she knew I will not abandon them. I will stand by them, hype them up, and march forward where everyone can see our small group. So if admin were to get upset, I would be the only one to face persecution.

And she was right, I didn't leave them.

Initially, we were a small group of kids. They were scared and nervous, mostly underclassmen who had that eager spark of hope and determination when you first begin to become politically conscious and aware of injustice in the world, kids who looked up to me. They had never protested before, and we were a small group, and other kids were watching us. They hesitated to chant, unfamiliar with hearing any protest chants before.

But they were passionate. Once I began leading them, they got the hang of it. Then the police showed up. Admin had called the police, when the whole plan that they knew of for this walkout was for a few speeches in front of the cafeteria (which didn't happen because actually passionate kids resented my traitor co-organizer and didn't want to speak for her), and then a march on the literal track. Not remotely off campus, not remotely near traffic.

They called the police to intimidate these children. I was infuriated. The cops began screaming at the kids that they are not allowed to stand on public sidewalks, yelling "move, move, keep moving, stop stopping" at the top of their lungs and screeching at these poor kids. They began shouting at us and trailing us and berating us with the speakers on their cop cars, things they use when pursuing someone on the road. I yelled that the cops can and will lie to you, that they're lying right now to intimidate you guys. I shouted to know their rights, that they never have to talk to a police officer alone, and they can refuse to answer questions without a lawyer being present. Once the cops saw me as an organizer, they slowly stopped.

I was beginning to get stressed, this was such a small group of students, my traitor co-organizer left, I am not in the loop for this protest, I felt like I was failing.

Then, in the distance, by some miracle, a wave of students, dozens, for sure, it was a whole crowd. I was confused, they were coming in from the main road over the large highway, could they have been kids from my school? But how, I don't recognize a single face.

It was [redacted] high school. The high school down the road from us.

This high school has a much higher non-white student population, and they are much, much less affluent. So how can they be in such close proximity to such a wealthy and white school like mine? Well, the building they are currently in this school year is a temporary location for them. My school district constructed this new building; it was so new that it was actually actively under construction for the better part of the school year, kids were attending class in rooms with visible pipes, construction blasting next to their windows, and dirt and debris around their campus.

SBS, or sick-building syndrome, is an increasingly problematic condition, especially in new buildings. We are using more and more synthetic plastics and other harmful materials that let out fumes and VOCs when constructing buildings, so long-term occupants of new buildings experience a mirage of health issues, known as SBS: nausea, headaches, respiratory issues, dizziness. We do not yet know the full long-term health consequences of SBS.

The district is using a lower-income, non-white school as guinea pigs. Because the students' families cannot fight back.

So I saw a wave of kids coming towards us. I couldn't believe it at first and finally gasped and said it really is [redacted] high school. They were fired up, shouting into megaphones, flying banners, and yelling that [my school name], your people are here, and our protestors started yelling back "Our people are here! Come, come to this side of the road!" The light turned finally, the cars stopped, and the wave came crashing towards us.

This school marched the 30-40 minutes to my school. To march with us.

The kids were excited and there was a lot of energy, so I decided to start leading them in chants. I started with basic ICE chants, and they followed. I tested the water and chanted against capitalism and billionaires, imperialism, US intervention: they chanted even louder.

Finally, as lunch neared an end, I had to turn around and head back, as admin would absolutely persecute me to the ends of the earth if I didn't. But some kids from my school continued to march with [redacted] high school kids on their march back to their own school. From what I heard, when I handed off the megaphone to other kids, they picked up where I left off perfectly.

I set them up for success, and successful they were. My heart is so proud.

One kid excitedly talked to me about socialism and Marxism. Many kids from this other school were pro-Palestine and vocally anti-imperialist and connected ICE to issues abroad. We technically defied admin without breaking enough rules to get me nuclear wiped (I agree breaking the rules should be part of protesting, however, this time around, we didn't have enough organization and strategy to execute this without putting me, the main political organizer of my school, in legitimate jeopardy). We marched in a way that got people to notice, cars stopped to honk in support for us, we are on a major road next to an interstate.

I organized kids, got their contacts, had productive discussions, radicalized kids more, got a gauge of the political tension in my area.

I represented Palestine as well. And we won today. Today, in this small, intimate corner of the belly of the imperial machine, there was a victory for Palestine, for the students.

My comprador traitor co-organizer may have gotten away with double capitulation. But she has lost all credibility: people do not trust her politically (people can tell when someone doesn't actually stand for anything). People do not trust her as an organizer (she collaborated with admin more than with any single student, in fact not a single other student, and capitulated multiple times pretty preemptively). People do not trust her as a person (she betrayed her friend and played dirty when there was zero warrant for such behavior, and she abandoned the opinions of literally the vast majority of my school's student body).

We showed out against admin, and marched with [redacted] High School, joining forces. And when it comes to my school, we showed something: we only get successful protests when we unite and refuse to bend a knee to powers that be. [Redacted] High School was threatened with expulsion if they walked out. They did it anyway. They're the reason this protest was successful. Kids at my school can now see that not being organized and determined as a student body will result in failed protests. That being too nervous to take a stand while allowing more disadvantaged communities to burden all the weight, just waiting around for one courageous student at their school to take action, will always fail: that one courageous student will be shot down by admin, as an easy target, and the demonstrations will always fail.

Kids are already talking, I can hear the talk buzz around me: we need to be organized. We need to unite and organize, that's the only way we can progress the cause and also protect her [me]. Otherwise, individual corrupt and privileged students will betray the cause, collaborate with admin, and destroy the movement and destroy the political autonomy of our students. We can do this, we are on the right side of history.

We had a protest that made actual motion.

We furthered the consciousness of students in my area.

I helped plant the seeds of future organizers.

The struggle is not over. But today, I can say for certain, we won.