Students at Montpelier High School join walkouts in Vermont in support of Gaza and to call for a ceasefire.
Students at multiple high schools and middle schools in Vermont participated in walkouts Wednesday to demand a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war amid the humanitarian crisis Palestinians are facing.“D.C., pick a side!” a rally speaker chanted, to which students responded, “Ceasefire, not genocide!”
“We're walking out today to protest the way the U.S. has funded this genocide, the way Vermont has participated in that funding, and to tell the school that we can handle these conversations,” a Montpelier High School student said. “We learn from having these hard conversations.”A group of more than 100 students from the high school marched from the school to the statehouse while holding Palestinian flags. The students called for a permanent ceasefire and for Israeli troops to withdraw from Gaza and the West Bank.
“All of us have a choice: Whether to participate in funding this genocidal campaign or not. It is up to each of us to make noise and to disturb people out of their shells,” a Montpelier High School student said. “This is not a time to stay silent, nor is it a time to be at ease. Our discomfort must lead to collective action.”
“I feel very powerless as a child during these conflicts. I feel like no matter what I do, people are getting hurt, and I have no control over the fact that my government is funding that hurt,” another said. “I feel guilty every time I eat a meal or throw food away, because people are starving to death [in Gaza]. Every time I go to sleep and wake up peacefully, I remember people are being bombed in their sleep.”
Video credit: Education Justice Coalition of Vermont
