Raytown South students are outraged after the “publicity stunt” they say the administration manipulated them into participating in last week. One student said “they pushed us out there” while another student said “we were pawns in a chess game.”
Breanna, a Co-founder of the recently established Black Student Union at Ray South, said she recently met with the admin to see if they would denounce racism and white supremacy. Their response she said, was “what would we do? Say that it’s wrong?”
Students describe the school as a prison-like existence where “police officers, staff members and counselors watch our every move.”
They say the students originally planned the walkout themselves but that the admin found out and did a forceful takeover of the event, turning it into a “publicity stunt” intended to make the school look good.
Rather than talk to the principal or admin (as is normalized journalistic practice), we wanted to hear directly from the students what is taking place at Raytown South, and it’s important that we did.
In the long-form video you will hear how the Raytown South students are “silenced” and that administrators and many staff have even threatened students.
We will continue to report on these brave and courageous students who are standing up for Black students across the city and country. They say this is just the beginning and this isn’t the last you’ll see from them.