Students at Mankato East High school staged a walkout Thursday afternoon in an effort to bring awareness to “the current situation in Gaza.”
In a letter to parents and staff, Principal Akram Osman said administrators met with students ahead of the walkout to discuss “exercising their First Amendment rights to peacefully assemble.”
“Today you may hear about a student-led walkout during the day in front of East High School,” he wrote. “Students stated their intended purpose was to raise awareness of the current situation in Gaza.”
The letter said students were informed of the implications of “violating their attendance or behavioral expectations.”
School administrators supervised the walkout and ensured students assembled in a safe and peaceful way, according to the letter. The walkout started at 1 p.m. and students returned to class at 1:55 p.m. and resumed the day.
Meanwhile, Edina Public Schools has been threatened with legal action after it suspended two students who chanted the slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” during a student walkout at Edina High School in support of Palestine Oct. 25.
The phrase ‘”from the river to the sea” is a direct quotation from the Hamas charter, according to Mark Rotenberg, vice president and general counsel for Hillel International and former University of Minnesota chief legal officer.
According to Rotenberg, the chant is a demand for the elimination of the only Jewish state on earth.
Activists affiliated with the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee plan to protest at the Edina school board meeting Monday night to “demand” that the district “stop repressing students [who] stand with Palestine.”
Sheila Qualls
Sheila Qualls is an award-winning journalist and former civilian editor of an Army newspaper. Prior to joining Alpha News, she was a Christian Marriage and Family columnist at Patheos.com and a personal coach. Her work has been published in The Upper Room, the MOPS blog, Grown and Flown, and The Christian Post. She speaks nationally on issues involving faith and family.
