 On Friday, February 16th, high school students from across New York City walked out of school to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and an end to U.S. support for Israel's genocide of the Palestinian people. The high schoolers declared that there can be no school as usual while their peers in Gaza are being brutally murdered by Israel. We did a walkout today because we believe that even though schools can't legally talk about the Palestinian war, I think it's only fair that students need to rise up and say something because young kids, adults, mothers, fathers are all dying in the war. And it's not fair that we stay quiet while they're dying and we just have to get up and come to school. We feel like we tend to be told that we aren't aware of what's going on or that we are not as educated on what's going on around the world. And so we want to show that we do know what's going on. We don't support this, even in our education system, even being in New York in general. We have so many people who represent us who are like supporting a genocide and we want to show that if nobody in the, nobody older is going to speak up, we are going to do exactly that. Friday's high school walkout was the second of such actions. In November, thousands of students had also walked out of school to demand an immediate ceasefire. However, following this brave action, students, educators and parent leaders were targeted by unprecedented retaliation by school administrators and authorities from the New York City Department of Education for speaking out against Israel's genocide. After their walkout this past Friday, students, educators and activists gathered at Bryant Park for a rally in March. Hundreds of New York City police officers were deployed to the march and made several arrests but were unable to prevent protesters from taking to the streets. We are all here together united in a just struggle. In the face of repression from the racist and Israeli-trained NYPD, our solidarity has not wavered. Shipped from our school 130 days of Israeli- Whether you walked out of school today, have joined us after a long day of schooling and teaching, or are joining us from elsewhere, today we amplify our youth leaders' call for an immediate cessation of Israeli genocide of Palestinians. All divestment from the terrorist organization known as Israel and justice for Palestinians who have suffered at the hands of the United States sponsored genocide. We are here today to demand a free Palestine from the river to the sea. Like many of us, students in Gaza are also in their last year of high school and if anyone has family in Palestine, you know how important the last year of high school is, also known as Stojihe. So students in Gaza in their last year of high school start preparing for this exam from their start of the academic year. So a typical student, a Palestinian student in Gaza that's in their last year of senior year should be buried in their books. Organizers declared that they will continue protesting along with millions across the globe to demand an immediate ceasefire and an end to Israel's brutal occupation of Palestine.