Trayvon Martin Walkout

Photo Taken by Aleanna Santos

This is fairly late but better late than never, right?

Well, as you may (or may not) all know, Trayvon Martin was a young African-American male who was shot and killed by a Hispanic man in Sanford, Florida late February.

On April 4, I was walking to my fifth period class when I suddenly noticed a large group of students crowding around the front gate of the Fremont campus. I assumed it was just a brawl between two students but later found out the group attempted to get off of school grounds, performing a walkout in honor of Trayvon Martin.

Students carried signs and pinned photos of Martin on their clothing, marching around campus looking for a way out.

My friends and I decided to be nosey and followed the crowd to see if the walkout was going to be successful. Eventually, half of the group exited through the front gate and the rest through the back.

I completely understand why students of Fremont felt strongly enough to organize a walkout for Martin, but what I thought was very disrespectful were the ones who took advantage of the walkout and looked at it as a free ticket out of school.

I kind of felt the need to add this story into my blog because on New Year’s Day 2009, a similar incident happened in Oakland. Oscar Grant was also an unarmed African-American man who was shot and killed by BART police.

These kinds of stories stick to the cities its happened in like glue. Once the entire country knows about a colored innocent life being taken away, (in my opinion) it’s hard to forget the past. Because of events like Grant’s, community members will never be able to trust authorities.