Central High School Students Walkout & Meet w St. Paul Mayor
St. Paul, MN – On May 31st, 2016, students from the Pan-African Student Union (PASU) at Central High School in St. Paul organized a walkout and march in protest of police abuse at their school.
Unicorn Riot was able to provide coverage of this event, including monoscopic 360° media and a livestream.
Click here for 360 video popup (140MB)
The walkout was organized in response to a recent video (below) recorded by a Central High student that shows Officer Kraus violently arresting a youth. Content advisory for viewing:
Over fifty students took part in the high-energy three mile march from St. Paul Central High School to City Hall in downtown St. Paul.
“Speak Up Central”, was the most common chant used, and was also the hashtag used to organize the action on the internet (the hashtag was trending by days end), as well as provide a platform the day before the action for students to voice their opinion as to why they need to speak up.
The youth had planned to do a die-in to show solidarity with the victims of brutality by the police at Central High School when they reached City Hall in downtown St. Paul. To the youth’s surprise upon getting to City Hall, the sheriff’s deputies were blocking the doors, not allowing any of the students or participants of the march inside the building.
Soon after, two dozen or so PASU members were invited by St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman’s office to speak with him. The youth presented their demands, which are as pictured:
Unicorn Riot livestreamed the must watch, youth-led conversation starting with the 11th demand on the list of 14 demands.
The meeting, which was facilitated by youth board members of PASU, featured many great questions by the youth and statements by the youth. Mayor Coleman listened and spoke his thoughts, some of which the youth weren’t too fond of. He also gave two dates to set up an hour long meeting with the youth to further discuss their demands.
After the meeting with the mayor, his office released this statement:
We spoke with a board member from PASU after the action:
[More 360° Images Below]
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Here is the rest of the videos from the livestream:
The youth are continuing their pressure on the Central High School’s administration by planning a “Call-in Black” or “Call-in Ally” day, where students are being asked to skip school because of the mistreatment of youth by the police officers at the school.
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