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Students walk out of Webster Groves High to protest ruling, curriculum

Students say by marching out, they had a lot of ground to cover.
Students in Webster Groves walk out on Monday morning.

On a street named after the birthplace of the civil rights movement, Selma Street, students walked out of their school to push for movement.

"We are tired of this injustice that has been going on, and as a matter of fact, there are some things going on at Webster Groves that we would like to change too," said Janae Reed-Jones, a senior.

After gathering to speak and chant, and listen to words from some of their classmates, a group of about 100 students took a lap around the building. Administrators (who learned of the plans over the weekend) and police made sure they stayed safely on the sidewalk.

But the march isn't just about what happened last week, with the Stockley ruling coming down; it's about what they say does not happen in their classrooms every day.

"Black history is not taught as a very important thing and we are trying to change that because it’s something that needs to change because ignorance in this world is something that needs to change," said Reed-Jones.

Danielle Daniels, also a senior, agrees.

"Just so they can see other perspectives and other point of views."

It was Daniels' idea to pass a clipboard to share ideas to pass to administration.

"I was just trying to think of a way we can actually create change at Webster."

The district's communication director says the walkout was not stopped because they wanted to let students exercise the right to protest, but students will be marked absent from the class they missed and suffer consequences as per policy.

"I think we chose to accept the consequences to show what we believe in or at least try to," said Julia Ross, a senior. "I think it’s always been there that we need to change the curriculum and I think this is just an example that we took as an opportunity to be able to address it. Like why do this? We just had this major injustice that happened and we need to do something about it."

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