The sun feels heavy, the heat exacerbated by the sheer number of bodies pressing flush in the sea of chants and signs held high and proud. Person after person stands tall at the head of the front, passing around a megaphone that continues to amplify the same message:
“Don’t divide us.”
Hundreds of students from across the Seattle Public Schools’ (SPS) District organized a walkout leading to the front steps of the John Stanford Center building in SoDo this past Monday, Sept. 19. The topic: divided lunches.
Officially detailed in an email sent out by Principal Abby Hunt on Tuesday Sept. 9, SPS issued a district policy of splitting every high school’s one lunch period into two, a schedule already adopted by Rainier Beach, Chief Sealth, Cleveland and Franklin High School. Originally thought to come into effect on Monday, Sept. 19, the day of the walkout, that morning Hunt reported a shifted deadline: All high schools must comply by Monday Oct. 6…