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defendourhoodz · 8 years ago

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Del Valle High School Represses Student Organizers, Forces Walk-Out to Cancel

This week, the Del Valle High School administration, led by Principal David Williams, has carried out rampant political repression of student organizers. Students had originally planned a walk-out on Thursday, March 9th, at 11:50AM. Under pressure from the administration, the students were forced to call off their walk-out and comply with a school-sanctioned ‘sit-in’ that was nothing more than theater for the administration to pretend it supports student organizing.

This repression comes as students are fighting for their families, their friends and their own lives, as immigration raids terrorize the Austin area and Travis county.

This is in addition to the daily struggles of the working-class, immigrant communities of Del Valle.Principal Williams originally released a memo on Monday, threatening suspensions and arrests for walk-out participants. Groups such as Educators in Solidarity and our own sought legal review from lawyers, who believe many of the threats, if carried out, would violate 1st amendment protections.

On Thursday morning a letter was sent to Del Valle High School and the School District by lawyer George Lobb, detailing the ways in which the threats in the memo were concerning from a 1st amendment standpoint.

A few hours before the planned walkout, Principal Williams called a meeting with student organizers. He reiterated threats of suspension and arrest, and he demanded they accept the school’s plan for a sanctioned ‘sit-in’ at 4:15.

Student organizers explain what went down: “At first our movement hoped to cooperate with the school while maintaining our autonomy. However we were required to meet their demands. Once we decided to organize without their "help," our leaders were brought in and forced to accept the school-sanctioned event or face immediate suspension and detainment.”

Students felt they had no other choice but to cancel the walk-out. One was forced to make an announcement over the intercom that the walk-out was called off and to ask students to participate in the 4:15 ‘sit-in’.

Forcing people to protest according to the rules of the power structures, whether they are high schoolers or not, and using broad threats to do so, is naked political repression. It doesn't matter how young or old - these students have the right to rebel against their conditions on their own terms. These aren’t just questions of ‘free speech’, but of our community’s survival.

The fact that this principal is a white man in the highest position of power within the school, controlling brown students, is not lost on us. The administration had no qualms threatening first-generation and immigrant students with suspensions, even knowing some students have immigration statuses that would be put at risk with a suspension on their record.

The school has criminalized students who might participate in a walk-out, nearly all brown youth, with the threats of arrests. They then cynically tried to pass the buck for those arrest threats onto the Sheriff and APD. They show that the ‘School to Prison’ pipeline is alive and well in DVISD when they use arrests as a threat to regulate students of color expressing themselves politically.

Hanging the threats of arrests over the students makes Sheriff and APD partners in the school’s repression. While both departments claim they do not collaborate with ICE, and Sheriff Sally Hernandez has made a show of her support of sanctuary cities, she has made no statement when it comes to the intimidation of students or community members who are protesting ICE. This is a form of collaboration with the immigration enforcement efforts happening in our city and county. They are making sure that no one disrupts the law and order of the Trump regime, and maintain a climate of fear so we won’t resist ICE’s efforts.

“To many of us, it was a surprise to discover how the school was willing to antagonize us over the choice of our tactics and goals.”

The School District and board have also appeared to go silent as Principal Williams’s administration has conducted itself in an unaccountable manner with student organizers. We urge them to become more involved to ensure their administrators follow 1st amendment guidelines in their policies as well as give space to students to learn and grow through autonomous grassroots organizing.

The administration has given the students a rough education in how quick those in power will work to violate their rights and control them. Students felt the treatment made them rethink if the administration really supports their message, saying, “To many of us, it was a surprise to discover how the school was willing to antagonize us over the choice of our tactics and goals.” We know this experience will only empower them. These exemplary students and community members should not be treated as troublemakers or criminals, but as our next leaders.

School walk-outs are a valid, necessary form of protest in our times, especially for students whose primary relationship to the state prior to adulthood is with the school system. Students are recognizing that the daily life of our community can not continue uninterrupted as immigration agents are kidnapping their family members and friends. All of us should learn from their bravery.

Principal Williams and Del Valle High School are only concerned with obedience and preserving a complacency that does nothing to disrupt the current order that is targeting oppressed groups. They are educating students how quickly those in positions of power will work to quash the rebellion of each new successive generation. We will take their lessons to heart but will not be deterred.

Defend Our Hoodz will never ask for authorities for the permission to protest, and we call on other organizers and community members to follow suit. There is no such thing as a 'permitted protest' that truly threatens those in power. We the people have the power ourselves to claim space in our communities, our streets, even our highways, to make demands of our oppressors on our own terms, not on theirs.

We know that our rebellion can not be derailed and stand fully behind these students. It is inevitable that we will push aside those clinging to power, or abandon those who choose to stick their heads in the sand even as fascism starts to sink its roots into our communities. We will fight back, led by the demands of the youth who are claiming their destiny to live in a better world.

#defendtheyouth #chingalamigra #fighticewithfire

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