“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” – Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
On Thursday, I attended the walkout at St. Petersburg High School.
Not as a participant, but as a journalist covering the story. And what a story:
Organized and attended by dozens of students across all grade levels, the walkout was in response to the recent killings of protestors by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, commonly known as ICE.
While administrators opposed the action, students found supporters in passersby on Fifth Avenue North, who honked horns as they drove by. Some even joined them on the protest line.
While the walkout alone is newsworthy, I came across another story about a St. Petersburg student who most likely would have participated – if he wasn’t unlawfully sent to Mexico with his parents.
One shocking story received at the protest is that of Jose Batista, told by his friend Preston Newsom.
A junior at St. Petersburg High School, and a natural born citizen, Jose was forced to leave the country after both of his parents were deported by I.C.E agents. Jose is now in Mexico and searching for a way to return to the country to finish his education.
“He himself is a legal U.S citizen. But when he comes back, he’s going to be without his mother and his father. He’s going to be stripped away from his family,” According to Nesom.
At only 17, Jose is now in a position where his whole life is turned upside down, and the resources he would normally rely on have dissipated. Having your concerns turn from passing classes, to figuring out a way to make your way back into YOUR country just to finish those classes is daunting to say the least.
The most terrifying part of Joseph’s situation isn’t even the challenges that he now faces, but the fact that he’s not even an afterthought. Joses’s parents are a number on a paper, a quota to meet, and Jose is just looked at as a necessary cost for that number.
When conducting the remainder of my interviews, I asked students about Jose, and nobody else had been aware of what had occurred. A whole life had been uprooted silently, and this cruel theft of a natural born Americans rights went unspoken of besides close friends.
The environment of this walkout was that of a community, a group of spirited students, and supporters who wanted to make a change. But with all those same strong community members, passing honks of support, and chants asking for the melting of the I.C.E came those either frightened to take a stand, or directly opposed.
The fact that a protest on this level was carried out was inspiring. Voices joining together, chanting, and bringing power to each present. Standing up for what you believe in isn’t easy to do, and even though it may seem insignificant, it truly does have an impact.
Drivers of squatted trucks (Except for one sedan) rolled past, yelling obscenities and making vulgar hand gestures. Other students walking into school late looked at the protesters with scorn as they made their way onto campus. It was as those trucks and students passed by that I realized a grim reality; it isn’t a minority that caused this, but the complacency of the masses.
But the students at St. Pete High School were remarkably brave in the face of adversity. Fellow students, grown adults, and administrators all stood in the way of what they believed in, and they still stood for it. It made me wonder, “Would something like this even be possible at our school?”
That is why these protests matter, not because those in power care, but because maybe this will inspire someone new. Maybe this new person will lead the next walkout, and maybe the next 20 walkouts will lead to a change in policy.
What happened at St. Pete High today wasn’t an isolated event, but it’s not about each individual; it’s about the culmination of communities banding together for change.
