During 3rd hour Monday, May 9th, there was a walkout for abortion rights. At roughly 11 am, approximately 200 students gathered at the flagpole in front of the school and marched down Stubbeman toward Robinson Street. This protest comes shortly after the Supreme Court leak involving the overturning of Roe vs. Wade, a pivotal court case that established women in the US have the right to abortion. You can learn more here. This march also protested the new abortion bill in Oklahoma virtually banning abortion with a few exceptions.

The protest started in front of the school around 11 AM. In under 10 minutes, almost 200 students gathered next to the flagpole before beginning the march. Students walked down Stubbeman toward Robinson but were asked to turn around and walk back toward the school by SROs.  The protest continued peacefully and students made several laps around the school before settling back at the flagpole. Students held a moment of silence and gathered for brief speeches in support of the abortion movement before returning to class and resuming normal activity. No one who participated in the march was injured in any way.

The organizer of the march, Emily Ellis, a sophomore, said that she organized the walkout because ” I just think that everybody should have the right to choose what they want to do with their body.” The reason the protesters walked towards Robinson was, “High (who also had a similar walkout) has Main Street right there. And there were a lot of people like driving by Main and so I wanted the same type of thing to where more people would see us but then Mrs. Blatt and the cops told us to go back.”  She wasn’t too happy with the turnout saying, “But any support is good.” The reason some students didn’t participate was, “[Because] a lot of people were afraid of their parents finding out just what I heard from some of the people there.”