On Thursday November 21, 2024, as students walked into East High School they were confronted by protesters outside. Three men with body cameras, flyers, and posters of fetuses were set up outside protesting abortion. As students arrived at school on the 21st they were confronted by these men. Teachers, deans, and SRO’s came outside and seemingly asked the men to leave, but to no avail. This sparked many questions among students, like, can they be here? Is this legal? Why do they have body cameras? What is allowing them to disrupt our education like this? Why are they here?
The divide between church and state prohibits the government from establishing or favoring any particular religion. This means public schools, which are government entities, cannot endorse, promote, or require participation in religious activities. Students are allowed to express their religious beliefs, through clubs, wearing religious clothing, or participating in voluntary prayer. However, this must occur outside of class time or in a way that does not disrupt the school environment. If students and teachers are held to these standards why aren't others, after all this is one of many reasons that parents send their children to public schools in the first place. Church and State is sacred and showing up outside with posters inflicting another belief seemingly takes it away. It is all well and fine to express your opinion but there should be a certain amount of respect especially for students' education. We come to school to learn, and protests like what was exhibited on the 21st can be quite disruptive and can take away from students' learning.
The debate of whether or not abortions should be legal has been one that we have seen time and time again, nationwide and statewide. One of the great things about America is the right to freedom of speech. As seen in the mock election, the student body and teachers at East tend to hold more left-leaning opinions and views with 91.2% of students voting to pass Amendment 79, the amendment that would preserve the right to have an abortion in Colorado, and that would lift the ban on using government money to pay for abortions. We are a liberal bubble, and that is exactly why these protestors have targeted East, as one of the protestors, Mark, stated, “People that don't have the same beliefs as me, we love them, that's one of the whole points we’re here because obviously everyone doesn't have the same beliefs as I do, if everyone had the same beliefs as I do we wouldn't be here. We want to encourage them and those who do have the same beliefs as we do to be bold.” These protesters aren't going to protest abortion outside a right winged school, they are going to come to the people who they believe are misled. Later in an interview Mark was asked what he was hoping to get out of this protest and what was the point of all of this? He responded saying, “I am a Christian and the two strongest tenets of my faith is to love your God with all of your heart mind soul and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself, so living that out compels me to come here to young people, that aren't receiving truth in there, they are receiving many lies in schools, and try to combat that to reach them with the gospel of Jesus Christ.” It is his personal opinion that abortion is wrong, so in supporting the right to have an abortion we are incorrect in their eyes, and vice versa. Despite personal beliefs they are fighting for what they believe is right. That doesn't mean they are correct, nor incorrect in their beliefs or opinons, but at the end of the day they are entitled to them. This may be disrupting, but that is the point. No matter what you are fighting for, you'll never create change without disruption. As a student body … the best way to deal with these protesters is to simply ignore them, as hard as that may be. At the end of the day they won’t have a platform without an audience.
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