CNS News, which has this story and the video that follows, notes that the decision to release as many as 600 students in the Ferguson-Florissant School District onto the streets of the city to protest at 8:15 a.m. was made without notifying parents. A letter was sent out after the fact, assuring concerned moms and dads that the student-led protests were peaceful and monitored by school administrators. Police, moreover, stood by as the students demonstrated.
As the video shows, the march through the streets of the town took place without incident. Had there been an incident — remember, we’re talking here about children, who sometimes act impulsively — there would have been hell to pay, along with lawsuits.
An angle to the story not explored in the CNS News piece is the putative educational value of this — if you will — “field trip.” What lesson was the protest intended to impart to young minds? That minorities are unfairly targeted by the police and that the decision by a grand jury not to indict former Ferguson officer Darren Wilson was a miscarriage of justice? One scene in the video seems to confirm that. It shows students with their hands raised as they walk, chanting, “Hands up, don’t shoot.” Also troubling are shots of students raising a single fist in a “black power salute.”
