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﻿<title﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, Walk Out Rise Up! High School Students Oppose Bill 160 - Article﻿</title>﻿
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﻿<b﻿>﻿Walk Out Rise Up! 
﻿<br﻿>﻿High School Students Oppose Bill 160 
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by Kheya Bag﻿<br﻿>﻿
﻿<i﻿>﻿New Socialist Magazine, December 1997 - January 1998﻿</i>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿
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In early October, Ontario was swept by a wave of spontaneous walk-outs from high schools by students protesting Bill 160. At the high school that I attend, Centennial C.V.I., during the week before the walk-out rumours floated around the school about such an action, which was basically how it got publicized and organized. The morning of October 3, students walked-out after the morning announcements. About 400 students gathered outside the school, ready to march downtown to MPP Brenda Elliot's office. Some students directed others towards the march, and a few anti-Bill 160 signs were present. When after a long march, the students finally reached the office, Brenda Elliot would not address the protesters, and so the group decided to march to other high schools in order to recruit more demonstrators. 
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This plan was first announced by a few students in the crowd, and then adopted by the group. Primarily, this tactic was useful because the students sitting inside the school would have otherwise not known about the protest, and the demonstrating encouraged them to join in, adding to the numbers. As well, such a demonstration forces students to think about the issue, their view on it, and what role they want in it. However, this situation was very unorganized: students dispersed and did not know what to do or where to go, an avoidable situation if there had been marshals and detailed planning ahead of time. At one school, the teachers and principal locked all the doors so that students could not escape. This was a particularly heated point of the event as students, shouting over the chanting, became orators, addressing the crowd on the importance of fighting Bill 160, other cuts to social services that the Tories are implementing, and the necessity of student-teacher solidarity. When the march had swelled to about 600, it returned to Brenda Elliot's office. 
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The students occupied the entire block. At each intersection, a line of students barred traffic while holding up make-shift placards. Students got up on benches and spoke to the importance of building an organized resistance to Bill 160, and how the next week another walk-out should occur with more organization and more schools in attendance. The student led demonstration lasted the entire day, and even regrouped when at 4:00 p.m. a teacher led demonstration was held in front of the MPP's office.
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The next day at school all visible "leaders" of the protest (such as myself) were called down to the principal's office and questioned about their involvement in the walk-out. The school board had also caught on to the news of a subsequent walk-out, and those students were threatened with suspension if they had any part in organizing it. In fact, I was couriered a letter from one school informing me that if I was ever seen on that school's property again, I would be charged with trespass. These measures were directives from the School Board; indeed, most teachers did not recognize that a student walk-out was similar to their own upcoming strike—direct resistance to Bill 160. 
﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿
Like teachers, students are organized by relations of production, and have collective power when they are in school, thus actions on our "spare" time much are less effective and more difficult to organize. Understanding this, principals in Wellington County sent home letters to every student saying that such disruptive behaviour would not be tolerated, and that the best way to fight Bill 160 was to stay in school, and write a letter to the local MPP on our spare time. There were also rumours started by the school administrations that the walk-outs were organized by university students who were using high school students as pawns to further their own nefarious ends. The School Board;s propaganda was spouted by the local press and radio. It was quite obvious that the School Board felt threatened by a student body which was making demands and was trying to empower itself. They did not want this "anarchy" that questioned government policies and practices to turn around and try to question school policies and practices. 
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It was in the context of these threats which caused so much fear and anxiety amongst student activists that the second walk-out, on October 9, ended up being as spontaneous and disorganized as the first. At the first walk-out, I had advocated for organization, so a handful of students from various schools that I had met at the walk-out and myself met a couple of times to try to plan an event. However, a few members of this group were especially afraid of suspension from school and the involvement of parents. For example, a young comrade at my school had been caught distributing flyers for the October 9 event: the Vice-Principal threatened him to suspend him if he continued this activity, and even called the boy's parents, who then forbade him from participating in the second walk-out. Undoubtedly, these barriers made it undesirable to have visible marshals for the second walk-out. 
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Another obstacle that the second walk-out faced was a backlash from students. Teachers and students alike dismissed the walk-out because supposedly the students who walked-out only did it so they could skip-off (if this were true, wouldn't all 600 of us have just gone straight to the mall?). Admittedly, the vast majority of students who walked out were between the ages of 14 to 16, and were probably not students that one might find honoured by their schools for academic excellence, to say the least. This point was continually brought up in order to negate the validity of their protest; in fact, it should strengthen it. 
﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿
Students who were already alienated by the education system, not feeling it particularly fruitful to be indoctrinated on October 3, decided to express their outrage over the Harris government's attack on what little they do get out of school such as extra-curricular programs and one-on-one attention from teachers. In addition to the snobbery faced, the rumours that professional agitators from the University of Guelph were behind the walk-outs were very harmful. In fact, a young woman who had participated in the first walk-out addressed my entire school over the school's P.A. system on October 9, urging students not to walk-out because this was a ridiculous tactic and because university students had planned the action in order to seduce youngsters. If left activist students had done a mass-leafleting to counteract the lies and backlash, as well as to get more people involved in organizing, immediately after the walk-outs, student activism in Guelph probably would not have fizzled out the way it did.
﻿<br﻿>﻿<br﻿>﻿
There was a turn-out of about 300 students in front of Brenda Elliot's office who again blocked off the streets. These were mostly students from separate schools because they had not participated in the first walk-out, and consequently, the Separate School Board had not threatened its students in the same manner as the Public Board did. A few university comrades in attendance pitched in for a P.A. system which allowed the brilliant, spontaneous speakers to be heard properly this time. Of c﻿ourse, cops were videotaping the event, and blocking access to the MPP's office; so students started questioning the very presence of the police at the action. At one point, the cops tried to let traffic through the occupied block, but students reacted by sitting down in the middle of the street and forming picket lines. While this was happening, speakers informed the crowd of their civil rights over the P.A. The event had been transformed into a question of student power and student rights—played out on the terrain of ownership of space..
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One generalization I was able to make after my walk-out experience was that high school students are extremely volatile politically. When teachers announced that they were going to strike, many students, including some who had participated in the walk-outs, were angered at the teachers for shutting school down in order to protect education: students felt that this was hypocritical, especially since teachers condemned similar actions when they had conducted them. After all was said and done, the same exuberant students who had taken matters into their own hands returned to their apathetic, drudgerous state, unable to keep up the momentum of activism can create.
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