Nearly 100 Stadium High School students walked off campus Tuesday to protest state cuts to education.
“We hope by doing this, it will get some more money for the schools.” said Stadium junior Daniel McQuerter.
For many students, the noon walkout occurred at least partly during their lunch period. But students are supposed to stay on campus, even during lunch. Many carried notes from parents excusing them from school to take part in the protest.
Stadium Principal Gail Barnum said the district will treat the protesting students’ absence like any other: If parents clear it, it will be marked as an excused absence.
“They are exercising their civil right to make their voices heard in a peaceful and organized way,” she said. Still, she added, “we can’t really sanction the activity.”
Word that the protest would happen spread to teens around Tacoma via Facebook.
Stadium sophomore Owen Huelsbeck and Gus Wimberger, a former Stadium student who now attends Foss High School, said they were inspired to launch the Tacoma protest after watching students at Seattle’s Garfield High School take similar action last week.
Huelsbeck and Wimberger cited the effects budget cuts have had at Stadium: health classes with up to 80 kids held in the school gym, and students denied entry to certain science classes for lack of teachers.
They also mentioned the district’s closure of two elementary schools and the threatened closure of Foss earlier this year.
Students gathered off campus at noon, then marched through Wright Park, downtown past the school district administration building and on to Tacoma City Hall. There students entered City Council chambers, where council members were having a budget-cutting discussion of their own.
Mayor Marilyn Strickland suggested students speak to legislators in Olympia, who are meeting in special session to plug a $2 billion budget hole. Some students promised to do so.
Students chanted “2-4-6-8, Fund our schools across the state” and carried signs identifying education as the state’s “paramount duty” – a phrase they correctly identified as coming from the Washington state Constitution.
They said they fear cuts to everything from copy-machine paper to sports programs. Upperclassmen are concerned about higher tuition at state colleges.
Students said they also worry that budget cuts will force schools to cut teaching positions and drive up class size.
“We’re trying to show the school board and people making budget cuts that we don’t want to be trapped in a classroom with 40 students,” senior Trevor Abbott said.
Debbie Cafazzo: 253-597-8635 debbie.cafazzo@thenewstribune.com
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