G20 Summit Sparks Protest Among Students

By Kim Ngai, News editor and Misael Galdamez, Entertainment editor

On Thursday, April 2, students against the G20 Summit called for a “walk out” during fourth period to sign a petition in the bowl area. They called for President Obama to stop spending time on the crises abroad and instead focus on education.

The G20 Summit is an economic forum of 19 of the world\’s largest economies along with the European Union. They gathered in London from April 1-2 to discuss how to solve the global economic situation.

President Obama\’s attendance at the G20 sparked some frustration at FVHS. Some students hoped he would spend more of his time focusing on the school budget.

“I think it\’s important to keep the students at FVHS in mind during these budget cuts because we\’re being seriously impacted by a lack of funding. Obama needs to pay more attention to our education since we are the future of our nation,” says sophomore Sarah Haydock.

A flier, which promoted the walk out, was distributed to persuade students to join the cause by walking out during 4^th period to sign a petition at the bowl. The flyer said that leaving class “is protected free speech that is immune from consequences.” However, Administration found out about the plan and announced via the school speakers at the end of 3^rd period that students leaving fourth period would be marked truant, and that an opportunity to sign the petition could take place at lunch.

“We need to tell leaders what we want—that\’s democracy. They can\’t just decide what they want to do,” says junior Josh Alvaro at the G20 gathering at lunch. “We can\’t just go along with corporations. Capitalism in decline is facism.”

“It especially makes me angry that the demonstration had to be rescheduled. President Obama\’s decision to attend the G20 Summit is probably going to have a huge impact on our already impacted school budget. Instead of going there, he could have been trying to solve problems in his own nation. By walking out of 4^th period, we could have had a more direct and dramatic impact,” says junior Brandi Lucey, one of the organizers of the walk-out.

Although the G20 protest was rescheduled to lunch, organizers of the protest are pleased to report a significant amount of signatures.

“Maybe we couldn\’t practice ‘free speech\’ today during fourth period, but we were able to give an example of democracy through the petition signing at lunch,” Lucey says.