Students call for justice with walk-outs
Students sang, rapped and chanted. They huddled together and had a moment of silence. They called for change.
It’s been 18 days since Anthony Thompson Jr., a 17-year-old student at Austin-East Magnet High School, was shot and killed by a police officer in a school bathroom. In the days since, students and community members have banded together to repeatedly ask for police reform.
For Austin-East students this past week, the demonstrations took the form of daily school walkouts at 3:15 p.m. to mark the approximate time Thompson was shot on April 12. Students stood outside the school building, wearing shirts and carrying signs in remembrance of their classmate.
“For me, it’s about keeping his name alive,” sophomore Ranasia Bost said Thursday afternoon.
Thompson is the fifth Austin-East student who has died since January because of gun violence.
The walkouts are about calling for justice and remembering Thompson.
STUDENT MARCH
On Tuesday, close to 200 students walked out of school. Of that group, about 25 people marched from Austin-East to the City-County Building.
Students carried signs and wore T-shirts with Thompson’s image. Some rode in cars and carried Black Lives Matter flags as they made their way downtown.
Walking down Gay Street, they called out: “Say his name!” “Anthony Thompson Jr.!”
Students again walked out of Austin-East again Wednesday. Around 100 people walked from the back of the school to the front, standing near a memorial for Thompson.
Some played music and others sang along as they stood outside.
MOMENT OF SILENCE
Students gathered outside the back of the school in East Knoxville on Thursday and had a moment of silence.
Students said they worried about perceptions of Austin-East, and want the community to know it’s a close-knit community. After Thompson’s death, and the death of four other students off campus, students and teachers have huddled even closer, Bost said.
“I feel like his death really brought everybody together,” Bost said. “Everybody communicates better.”
The walkouts are another way to honor the students’ struggles in returning to class after the shooting. Students left the building that day in front of a massive police presence.
“It was hard. That’s not something somebody can just get over, and on top of that, it happened in the school,” Bost said. “Everybody’s going to be thinking about that.”
“We don’t feel unsafe because of the students, but because of the officers,” said Arianna Bailey, a junior, said Tuesday as she marched to the City-County Building in protest.
On top of that, students started state-mandated standardized tests Tuesday.
BALLOON RELEASE
Students again gathered at the front of the school Friday afternoon for a poignant moment: They released balloons in memory of the students who died. Some balloons were shaped like hearts, others were the school’s colors of red and blue.
They wrote messages on the balloons before releasing them.
Standing near the memorial for Thompson, who went by the nickname “Ant,” and in the street outside the school, students released the balloons.
“Long live Ant,” they yelled in unison.