Shorewood High School students march to University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee encampment as student movement grows

Cheers went up at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee encampment for Palestine on Thursday when about 75 Shorewood High School students marched onto the grounds after leaving school mid-day.

"For Gaza, we must fight," the students chanted as they entered the campus, having walked from the high school a mile away. "Students of the world unite."

Following mounting protests by college students nationwide against the Israeli violence in Gaza, more high school students are also finding their place in movements calling on U.S. institutions to divest from Israel.

The Shorewood students aren't the first high school students to visit the encampment. Students across Milwaukee have been spending time there and participating in related protests. Elsewhere in the state, high school students in Madison marched on Thursday at the Capitol, and Stevens Point Area Senior High students walked out of classes Friday.

“For the younger generation, they’ve been more awake," said Ahmad Badwan, a senior at Salam High School in Milwaukee who was at the UWM encampment Wednesday. "You can see awareness by everybody; it’s not just Muslims anymore."

Shorewood High School senior Sam Diliberti said students have "trailblazed" important movements throughout history, such as the Howard University student sit-ins, anti-Vietnam War protests and the movement to divest from South African apartheid.

"As students, we are of the most advantageous position possible to spread awareness and action on this issue, both to our fellow students, and to those that we target with our demands," Diliberti said.

Shorewood students walked out of classes at noon Thursday

A month before high school graduation, in the midst of preparing for that milestone, Diliberti and other Shorewood students have spent spent the last week helping to organize a way for high school students to support the protest movement building across the nation over the last few months.

“The most basic objective is to advocate for the people of Palestine — for their freedom and their peace,” Diliberti said. “We also want to stand in solidarity with students around the nation peacefully protesting.”

Diliberti visited the UWM encampment on Monday and Tuesday and discussed it with his friends Jenna Abu-Zahra and Zaid Hussein, who are part of the school’s Muslim Student Union.

On Tuesday, the students hashed out the logistics over Zoom, made signs and spread the word on social media.

On Wednesday, with the help of the group’s adviser, teacher Morad Natasha, they were able to obtain approval from the school’s administration for the walkout, though the school was clear that the approval was not an endorsement.

Around noon Thursday, dozens of Shorewood students gathered on the front lawn of the school where they gave speeches from the main steps. Media weren't allowed on the campus. Administrators watched the gathering without intervening.

In a statement, the district reiterated that it was not a school-sponsored event.

"In the Shorewood School District, we support our students’ right to engage in peaceful activism and to express themselves respectfully and responsibly," the statement said. "We are committed to fostering a safe, inclusive and supportive learning environment for all members of our school community. School staff were present during the events on campus today for student safety but were not present once students left campus."

As the group walked to UWM, they were accompanied by volunteer marshals from the UW-Milwaukee chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, who helped with traffic safety.

Abu-Zahra, a junior at Shorewood High School, is Palestinian and said her heritage has always been something she and her family have been proud of. She has been hyperaware of ongoing tensions in Gaza and the West Bank from a young age, she said.

Abu-Zahra was excited for an opportunity to get involved with the protest at UW-Milwaukee and to be a steward for other students seeking involvement. Compared with UW-Madison, where violent clashes with police unfolded Wednesday, the protests at UW-Milwaukee have not been shut down by police.

“I've been keeping up with the news and what’s been going on at other schools,” Abu-Zahra said. “It wouldn't ever stop me from coming to this. I was ready to come no matter what we would find.”

Isabella Busby, a Shorewood senior and co-president of the school's Black Student Union, said she hoped the students' involvement would prompt more people to learn more about the devastation in Gaza, adding that student movements have "ended up being right" in the past.

"A lot of times that’s recognized too late, so I hope this time around people will start to recognize that maybe we should listen to the young voices of the nation," she said.

Robert Gronert, a Shorewood senior, said he’s seen a lot of young people wanting to mobilize against the “horrors that the Israeli military and occupying force has inflicted on the people of Palestine," and looking to support the college protests.

“The way we've seen students being brutalized on campus, we’ve seen teachers being attacked and arrested, it really is just distressing to see that, and we also know that if there are high schoolers there, the police will be less likely to attack them,” he said.

Salam School students say they have followed the news non-stop

Muhammad Manasrah, a Palestinian senior at Salam School, visited the UWM encampment with classmates after school on Wednesday.

He said the events since October have "changed his life forever," adding that it's been a more significant experience than living through the COVID pandemic. He frequently scrolls through Al Jazeera, Instagram and Twitter.

"Every day I just wake up checking what's new, what's new," Manasrah said. "How am I supposed to sit comfortable while people, my own blood, are dying back home? It just doesn't sit right with me. I want to do something so bad but you can only do so little here."

Ismail Bektesi and Ahmad Badwan, also seniors at Salam School, said they felt similarly glued to the news.

"I watch it like all day, almost," Badwan said. "Whenever I have the chance to, I just go look at the news, see what’s going on."

The three students are on the school's basketball team. They've been wearing keffiyehs at games and when they win, they shout, "Free, free Palestine!" They said it can be difficult to focus on basketball and schoolwork.

"Sometimes when you're going to practice and you've just seen the news before, you're like, I don't even want to practice," Badwan said.

The students look for anything they can do to express themselves. They've attended countless protests. Badwan said he has posted to Instagram daily, usually with at least 10 posts.

“We come out here to show support because that’s what we can do, at this point," said Bektesi, who spent a cold night at the encampment. "That's worth everything to me because it's not like I can turn a blind eye like the rest of the United States is doing."

MPS students also picketed for Gaza this week

Earlier on Wednesday across town, Milwaukee Public Schools high school students also called attention to Gaza.

The students, who were picketing outside MPS' central office for May Day with Youth Empowered in the Struggle, held a “Free Palestine” banner in the center of a display of their demands, which also included better school lunches and police-free schools.

Several students said Gaza was the top of mind: “The most important issue for me, in my eyes, is the Israel and Hamas war that’s happening right now," said Hamilton High School student Martin Ruvalcaba, 16. "We do need to have a ceasefire.”

Hamilton student Analicia Tovar, 17, added: "If we don’t say anything about it, who will?"

Contact Rory Linnane at rory.linnane@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @RoryLinnane. 

Contact Claudia Levens at clevens@gannett.com. Follow her on X at @levensc13.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Shorewood High School students walk out, march to UWM encampment