Students, teachers walk out of Oakland school to call for Gaza cease-fire
Dozens of students and teachers walked out of class Wednesday in Oakland to call for a cease-fire in Gaza and to protest what they called an attack on their rights to free speech.
The walkout happened at about 11 a.m. at Westlake Middle School on the 2600 block of Harrison Street near Lake Merritt.
Aside from the call for solidarity with the plight of Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas, the group said it was protesting the decision by the Oakland Unified School District to cancel a Feb. 25 meeting of Bay Area labor unions at the school to discuss responses to the conflict.
Organizers said they had reserved the school for the meeting and received a notice the day before from the district saying the reservation had been canceled due to staffing shortages. The group says the last-minute cancellation was a "politically motivated attempt to stifle Palestine solidarity organizing" and that it was considering legal action against the district for allegedly violating its First Amendment rights.
The group also wants the school board to vote on a Gaza cease-fire resolution. A second march was planned at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.