GRC Students Hold Public Protest

In the past year, we have seen a num­ber of peace­ful protests by younger folks in our com­mu­ni­ties, and GRC youth are no excep­tion. A group of ten GRC stu­dents took a moment of protest and reflec­tion in front of the cour­t­house in Winchester on the sun­ny after­noon of Monday, February 16, mark­ing what they hope will be the first of many mind­ful inter­ac­tions with their First Amendment rights and their per­spec­tives on cur­rent events. 

One par­tic­i­pant “attend­ed this protest because many peo­ple at GRC feel unsafe with the cur­rent polit­i­cal state,” refer­ring specif­i­cal­ly to anti-immi­grant sen­ti­ment and poten­tial ICE activ­i­ty in light of recent events. “I also want­ed peo­ple and local gov­ern­ment to know that kids care about this issue and we are not going to stop car­ing,” said the par­tic­i­pant, whose iden­ti­ty we are keep­ing pri­vate for the sake of the safe­ty of minors. 

The stu­dents brought signs and cam­eras to doc­u­ment their efforts and gain vis­i­bil­i­ty through both in-per­son and online aware­ness. This action fol­lows an increase in civic activ­i­ty in the area, from oth­er stu­dent protests, such as walk­outs and the recent ICE vic­tims vig­il, to plans for future protests and gatherings.

The posi­tion­ing of a protest in front of the cour­t­house rather than at GRC indi­cates both the will­ing­ness of these youth to make a pub­lic state­ment and their under­stand­ing of the civic pur­pose of protest and their right to it under the First Amendment to the US Constitution. Peaceful protests in pub­lic spaces that do not block traf­fic are a time-hon­ored, non­vi­o­lent way of demon­strat­ing one’s opin­ions on a topic. 

Protest is a way to make one’s voice heard, and these stu­dents achieved that goal on Monday. They indi­cate that oth­er protests are desired and in the works, but no spe­cif­ic details are avail­able yet.