Yesterday, in the last few minutes of seventh hour, head principal Dr. Greg Mathison’s voice flowed through the intercom: “all after-school activities are cancelled. All students are to head home immediately.”

“Our ultimate goal on that was to make sure that our kids and our staff members were able to get home safely,” Dr. Mathison said. “At the time of that decision, we did not know the grand jury decision was going to come out.”

Five hours later, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch’s voice flowed through televisions across the country; Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, who fatally shot teenager Michael Brown in August, will not face charges.

The Aftermath at MHS

Early this morning, superintendent Dr. Eric Knost sent Rockwood parents an email informing them that school would continue per usual.

“In times of unrest and uncertainty, children need the security of routine so we want our families to have the ability to send their children to school,” Dr. Knost said in the email. “We completely understand that not everyone will agree with this decision, but we remind parents that it is ultimately their decision as to whether their children attend school today.”

Today, attendance was down between roughly 10 to 15 percent, whether that be in response to the grand jury’s decision and the following protests or the fact that it is the day before Thanksgiving break, Dr. Mathison said.

Usually, around 95 percent of students are present during the school day. Today, that percentage was closer to an estimate of 80 to 85 percent.

“There are certain freedoms that students have in the building, but if they were to cause a disruption, then we would have to deal with that situation,” Dr. Mathison said before school started this morning. “My goal is that people are able to come to school in a safe and secure environment, that we’re here for learning and that we are cognitive of people’s rights as well.”

Today, at the end of seventh hour, Dr. Mathison made another announcement over the intercom: all after-school activities were cancelled again to ensure all students and staff members could get home safely to enjoy the holiday.

As he monitored the parking lot after school, Dr. Mathison, tears in his eyes, said how impressed he is with the MHS students, staff and community for how they reacted to the protests in Ferguson.

“I think adults in the St. Louis area can learn a lot from our students and how we respect each other with our differences of opinions, yet we still care for each other,” Dr. Mathison said. “We can show a community that’s struggling how we can heal.”

A Former Ferguson Resident’s Reaction

As the reactions to the grand jury’s decision unfolded last night, Katie Jensen, social studies teacher, and her husband scanned Twitter, checked Reddit, scrolled through Facebook as she watched the protests ensue on the news.

“We have students in this school who are directly affected,” Jensen said. “I know I myself am directly affected, and I think the entire city was in front of their televisions last night watching all of it happen. So I think to be oblivious to it or to say it doesn’t affect me is an unrealistic statement because I think it’s affecting the entire city.”

In the last few weeks, Jensen and her family have temporarily moved out of Ferguson due to fear of the unknown. As to whether or not they will move back to Ferguson, Jensen said it all depends on how the protests play out from here and how the businesses recover.

“Obviously it’s not an easy place to go and get groceries,” Jensen said. “The Walgreens that was looted, that was a Walgreens that we got our prescriptions sent to, so that’s absolutely something that we need to consider.”

Jensen said the possibility of recovery for this community is there, but it’s going to be a long process.

“I hope that there is nothing but positive growth and change from here on out,” Jensen said. “Whatever strife there is between the police and community, I hope that communication begins so they can begin to bridge that gap and so this doesn’t happen again.”

Student Outlook

Sophomore Sydney Munden stayed home from school today. She drove to IHOP, ate some pancakes, studied at the library and repeatedly checked Twitter, online newspapers and television broadcasts for updates on Ferguson.

“My mom said that I couldn’t go [to school],” Munden said. “She never told me why, but I feel like it was because of the protests.”

Last night after the grand jury’s decision was released, Munden said she had to logout of Twitter.

“Just because you can say anything you want to doesn’t mean that you should,” Munden said. “Not everyone knows all the facts. Nobody knows what exactly happened and they have no right to go on Twitter and try to be right.”

Munden said she was deeply upset when people started tweeting about the St. Louis being ruined and said they were embarrassed to be from their city.

“A lot of people think that people are rioting and looting for no reason, but I think there is an underlying reason,” Munden said. “People aren’t doing this for no reason. They don’t feel like justice has been served.”

Kyle Reamer, sophomore, said he believes the decision the grand jury made last night is the right one.

“I think there’s a very small portion that are extremists that are doing the rioting,” Reamer said. “And I think that these people aren’t so much protesting the decision. They more just want to get attention from the media.”

Everyone has the right to assemble and to riot, Reamer said. However, the rioters are destroying the city, and it’s not helping them, Reamer said.

“I hope that everything calms down in the next coming year, and they can work things out amongst the protesters and peace will come of it,” Reamer said.