Local Students Continue Protesting Martin Shooting
MIAMI LAKES (CBS4) - Students throughout South Florida continue to show their protest in the Trayvon Martin case. CBS4 caught up with a small, but vocal group of high school students from the Miami Lakes Educational Center.
About 60 students from the school at 5780 N.W. 158th Street mobilized after school let out for the day and marched north on Northwest 57th Avenue and then west to Joella Park on Northwest 183rd Street at 67th Avenue.
They chanted "Justice for Trayvon" as they marched along Northwest 57th Avenue, carrying signs and accompanied by two Miami-Dade Police cars, whose officers were looking out for their safety.
Leading the group, 12th grader Zaquan Jones told CBS4's Peter D'Oench, "We will not rest until George Zimmerman is arrested. We don't want Trayvon to have died in vain."
The protesters told CBS4 that they were outraged by the death of the 17-year-old Martin of Miami Gardens. Martin was reportedly shot and killed by neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman on February 26th.
Zimmerman claimed self-defense, but a 911 operator told Zimmerman to back off Martin when Zimmerman called 911 about seeing Martin in his complex in Sanford.
Hope Wilcox and Zakeya Bowens helped organized the march in Miami Lakes.
"We feel that there are some issues that needed attention," said Wilcox. "We are here so that justice will be served. We wouldn't want that to happen to anybody in the Miami-Dade school district, that they be treated like that for the way they looked."
Wilcox was refererring to Martin wearing a hoodie.
She said the protest would continue Tuesday at Miami Lakes Educational Center, where some students would wear black shirts and hoodies.
She also said they would continue reaching out to more people by "social networking" through Twitter and Facebook. She said they would try to get more people to add their signatures to the growing on-line petition in the Martin case.
Shortly after that group left Joella Park, another group of about 35 students showed up from different Miami-Dade high schools, expressing the same sentiments in the Martin case.
The Miami Lakes protest was mirrored by another demonstration at Coral Reef Senior High School when students walked out and lined up in protest during their lunchtime break.
