Protesting against the "higher-ups"

Austin Yu

Section A01

After reading Robby Cohen’s article “Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Paving the way for campus activism”, it reconfirmed my belief of how important it is for students to have a strong voice in an educational institution. Whether that is a high school or an Ivy league university, it is important for the students to have a say in any decisions that administration make that affects students in any way. I learned this at my high school. My high school’s administration was notorious for being very oppressive towards students. Some even compared them to “Nazis”. For example, the student body wanted to have a mural put up in our dance studio. The mural was paid for through donations. The donation process was not easy because the mural was very expensive to paint. It took many months for the student body to collect enough money to pay for the mural. Shortly after the mural was painted, the administration, without prior notification to any of the students, painted over the mural with white paint claiming that it did not look appropriate for our school. Our high school has always taught us to embrace self-expression. Painting over the mural that the students worked on for several months not only contradicted what they said about self-expression, but also was the first of many times the administration has tried to take away things that students worked hard for. A rally was quickly put together the following morning after the incident, and chants could be heard from across the school. The administration, again, oppressed students and forced students to go back to class or risk consequences. Some students stayed as others left, showing their strong resentment towards the administration’s decision. This reflects upon Cohen’s article because Weinberg and Savio both fought for something they believed in, even though they risked being arrested or potentially being thrown out of school. The protests at my high school continued for about two weeks. Finally, the students won and the administration agreed to repay the amount for the mural painter to return and repaint the mural. Although Berkeley activists were leading a Free Speech Movement, it is very similar to what I, along with other students, fought for. We were essentially both going against the “higher-ups” of our school, and ultimately won through protests and rallies.

A question I have regarding the use of protest movements is “Are there schools in America which try to follow what the Berkeley Free Speech Movement did, and did not succeed?” Nowadays, school administrations are more aware of the power students have; however, are there schools who continue to oppress students’ voices and succeed in doing so despite protests and rallies?

                             Picture of the Mural