Walk out
History has a tendency of repeating itself, and students from Lennox Academy and surrounding schools are not willing to let that happen. Walkouts have sent important messages since 1968 when discriminated Mexican-American students came up with a way to have their voices heard. Now, in 2006, the government came up with HR4437, a bill that would deny any services to illegal immigrants in the US. This bill would separate many families and affect anyone that interacted with an undocumented person. Since our demographic population at Lennox Academy is mostly Hispanic, sons and daughters of immigrants (if not immigrants themselves) chose to walk out of school so that the government could see that students are also concerned. The walkout in Lennox Academy took place on March 27th when roughly 60 students left the school to protest in the streets. Many scholars did not know what was going on and it was a little unorganized but we are proud of those who at least took the initiative to start something. The walkouts in other schools continued and so did our anxiety to get our point across. The media showed up to subsequent walkouts that we ended up being glad that we did not participate because it started to get a little out of hand. This was a learning experience that brought up a topic to discuss, informed us, motivated and got us involved. Once again, we remember and defend our raíces.
Walk in
Supportive of the walk-outs or not, the students at Lennox Academy showed that there is another way to send the same message across. After the unorganized walk-outs that had been going on, the whole family came together on Friday, March 31st, everyone was wearing white T-shirts. We commemorated Cesar Chavez and even had his grandson come over and talk to us about his inspirational grandfather and how we can start a change from now. After hearing the motivating speeches, including the one our very own Angela Aragon gave the night before in front of the Mayor, Dolores Huerta, Cesar Chavez’s granddaughter and Martin Luther King’s daughter (among other important people), all the students enjoyed lunch together in the grass area and the microphone was open for anyone that wanted to contribute with their opinion. We got to ask questions and express ourselves regarding the immigration issue and our previous response to it. Once again, we proved to be well rounded, opinionated students in our “walk-in” that was on the news that night.
