On March 21, over 200 students at City and Islington College staged a “student walk out” in an attempt to display solidarity about the inequality of stop and searches that occur at the school. “I think the driving force of the protest was the Child Q incident” a fellow protestor stated on the day.
The protestors adopted some bizarre methods, gathering outside of the school gates and chanting “stop the search” and “we are not criminals,” attracting the attention of several cars on the road, who honked in support. The teachers were taken aback and did not try to stop the students, as they knew the protest was going to be arranged. Most teachers supported the protest and encouraged the students to join in on the walk out.
The cheers and jeers lasted a whopping four and a half hours, before the students eventually dispersed, exhausted from the events of the day and from the increasing heat, with later social media posts stating that they do not support knife crime and do not want to abolish stop and searches, but merely stop the unequal ideologies surrounding them.
After planning a second walk out on Thursday 31 March, the protestors exclaim that they will not stop until change has been made. Will inequality be achieved? Will a difference be made? Only time will tell.
