Dean Of Students At Philadelphia School Stands By Students' Ferguson Protest
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Two weeks after a grand jury decision to not indict Officer Darren Wilson for the death of Michael Brown, protests are still being had across the country.
Ed Green, Dean of Students at Kensington Health and Science Academy, talked with WPHT midday host Dom Giordano about the staged walk-out by many of the students of his school on Friday.
"Somehow they were organized, and there was no disruption. They all came out at the same time and met coming from one floor and the other and walked out of school. They were prepared. They had signs, and they were quiet, and it was obvious what they were doing. And then when they got outside the door, that's when they started chanting."
According to Green, there were no official forms of repercussions for the protest, and the controlling of such walk-outs are "predetermined outside of [his] office and it's independent of the school's policy."
Green pushed back notions that Giordano made that the students' actions and the administration's inactions sent a bad message.
"If students felt as though there was some cause big enough for them to come together to have their voices heard, I think that sends a very good message…The point was to disrupt something to get the attention, to let your voice be heard, and if people went with the status quo, which said that what they were doing is wrong, then nothing would have been corrected. I was proud that the kids took a stand and took a cause and acted on it, because it seems to me the youth today don't stand for anything."
In retrospect, Green still supports the students banding together for a cause that is important to them and compares it to the negative alternatives that they could have chosen.
"I was very glad to see that they stood for something and they came together for a common cause, acted together, and they brought themselves back to school as opposed to going somewhere, doing something wrong, cutting, just going home, or whatever. They went on this protest, and protested, and came back to school, and I believe that was to show that it was for a cause that meant something as opposed to just a reason to get out of school."
Before prematurely ending the interview, Green ensured that Giordano and his listeners knew what he felt the motive behind the protests was:
"I need to inform you that these protests are to let people know that black lives matter."
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