Around 30 students posed a peaceful walkout this afternoon during seventh hour. After initially meeting in the hallway of the foods class and nurses office, students walked on the track and through hallways on the first, second and third floor with their hands held high, sporadically chanting the infamous motto: “Hands up, don’t shoot”.

MHS administrators were joined by district employees as well as superintendent Dr. Eric Knost to monitor the hallways and occasionally tell the demonstrators to stay quiet. The protesters stayed respectful and quiet throughout their tour of the school.

Halfway through the hour, head principal Dr. Greg Mathison called the demonstrators to sit in the Commons. The rest of the administrators and staff joined them. He gave the students a decision to either return back to class or remain in the Commons; they could no longer wander the hallways of the school. Many of the demonstrators obliged and stayed in the Commons, where they organized an impromptu conference for students to share experiences, thoughts and words of wisdom.

The demonstrators began their impromptu conference with moment of silence to commemorate Michael Brown.  Then, one by one, students voiced their opinions, socratic seminar style, to the group, speaking on the impact of Ferguson, race relations in the community and their heightened camaraderie as a group.

Kevin Perkins, junior, was one of those students.

Although he became one of the main speakers at the conference, Perkins said he nearly decided not to join the protest at all.

“At first I was like ‘Yeah, I’m gonna do it, I’m all for it, and this and that, but then – this happened yesterday as it got later around the night – I started to think ‘I don’t think I want to do it; I think I’m gonna change my mind,’ and I woke up with the same mindset,” Perkins said.

He changed his mind again, however, after seeing numerous videos of police brutality as well as witnessing certain acts of ignorance by fellow students.

After mentioning the protest, Perkins said, “A whole bunch of kids in the classroom started laughing, joking, making smart comments, and that made me feel like this is not a laughing matter and that got inside my heart and that made me want to go out and protest.”

Perkins experienced  similar ignorance when he tried protesting outside with his hands held up including horn honking and “people riding by and flicking us off.”

Perkins now feels thankful for the opportunity to protest at the school as well as grateful to the administration.

“They could have shut us down; they could have given us consequences,” Perkins said. “They told us that if we wasn’t in class, then we were gonna get marked absent, but I’d rather get marked absent than get shot down like Michael Brown did.”

Overall the protest today at MHS was a huge success both for the administration as well as for the students.

“What you organized today and how you ran this meeting today is absolutely perfect,” Dr. Terry Harris, Educational Equity and Diversity coordinator for Rockwood, said in a speech to the demonstrators. “Man, I’m so proud of you guys. I don’t know how many people would have done this or been courageous enough to stand out there. And you guys did this. We’re proud of you and proud that you guys represent the Marquette Mustangs and the Rockwood School District, so thank you guys for what you did today.”