I'm sure, if you tried really hard, you could be a little more condescending.

Ryan T. Hicks, I love you so much right now.

Wow, Ryan, douchey much? Thank god there is still social activism in high school. Teens are notorious for not knowing a lot about the protests they attend. All they know is cops mess with them for hanging out and cops are killing and injuring people that don't deserve to be dead or injured and that could easily include them any day of the week.

I'd rather you did a douchey SLOG post about the ones who stay in school with their heads down and allow these killings and brutalizations to happen and say nothing.

Oh, and as for tenuously related splinter groups -- yeah, adults NEVER do that at a protest.

Did I mention you're a douche?

Wow. What a mean-spirited post. This guy needs to be relegated to data entry for a while. At least Matt Luby had something to say besides picking on high school kids for caring.

I bet Ryan has not been out of high school long himself. He's just showing that he's alot more sophisticated now.

YES. If you're going to walk out of school, at least have some idea why you're walking out.

At least these kids had a chance to learn an important lesson, that no one gives a shit about them until they can vote and/or afford a good attorney. High school protests are often very silly - even the ones we had against Desert Storm were kinda lame.

Kudos to the kids for having the balls to protest.
Maybe it would have been better if they had been better able to articulate why they were protesting - but there is a difference between not knowing why you're protesting, and not being able to articulate it in a clear way.
Of course, they could also have seen a protest as a way to skip class.
Its unfortunate how socialist groups tend to latch on to protests like leaches. I've seen it at anti-war protests, as well as other kinds of protests in Vancouver, (the blame capitalism/"leaders" for everything)

Meanwhile many thousands did more in Egypt, Tunisia, and Iraq.

Kudos to those who did something. The rest of you are sheep.

Pathetic. Less than 20? And @3 thanks god that there's still social activism in high school.

Police brutality = real issue. Education cuts = real issue. This "rally" = disorganized, underwhelming response that undercuts any attempt to address the real issues.

And goddamn socialists! Get your own fucking rally! Why do the same few pathetic wannabe socialists show up at everyone else's rally, regardless of what the hell it's about and co-opt it? It just dilutes the organizer's message and allows the opponents of the issue to paint all liberal or progressive advocates as socialists. F@%k you socialist rally crashers. You aren't fixing anything and you only hurt progressive actions and causes. You're bigger douches than the Ryan or whoever wrote this post. Fact is, you can't get anyone to show up at anything you'd do because your only members are you, your mom, and some fat guy who masturbates at the public library. So you ruin other people's events. (Of course this event was ruined from the beginning.)

I used to hate high school anarchists more than anyone. Now it's Carpetbagging Failed Socialist(s).

Christ, what an asshole. Keep up the good work, kids!

They're kids, and they're trying to do the right thing, and I agree with pretty much all the comments above that this is a really mean-spirited post. They deserve so much more than you showing how clever you are at their expense. I hope the inexperienced-but-well-intentioned young protesters aren't discouraged by the inexperienced-but-snarky-jerk young intern. I think they deserve an apology.

Here's a look at some of the pamphlets distributed at the rally: http://ohpamphletters.blogspot.com/2011/…

What's the purpose of walking out of class to protest? Do they not want protesting to cut into their after school video game playing? Color me impressed when they sacrifice some of their quality time.

God, I was hoping you'd gotten rid of that Libtard intern so he could spend full time sucking up to his College Republican handlers so he can get a plum job as a lobbyist (or a Limbaugh understudy) when he graduates. No such luck. Maybe you could send him to cover a BIAW meeting or something--for a change it'd be nice to read his reporting of an event he doesn't feel the need to sneer at.

Typical lazy fucking teenagers doing a typically half assed
job.

Can you tell I'm a teacher?

C'mon, people! Yes, the kids' hearts may be in the right place, and we all fear the inquest may have a farcical result, but this is a great piece of fun-pokery. If you can't enjoy the comic aspects of some of our marches around here, you're not going to enough of them.

See, if you want to get on the news, dress up in nazi uniforms, goosestep, and wear hitler mustaches like the tea party do.

I remember when I was in high school in 2000-2004 when people would stage walk-outs to protest the Iraq war. Very few people left. Most of us had enough sense to realize it wasn't worth getting in trouble for attendance to go yell and hold signs for something that ultimately didn't matter worth a goat fart.

The students don't come off as articulate in this article because you hardly quote them and instead speak FOR them with your own snide editorializing. A quick glance at more professional media coverage of this event will show that the students were more serious and articulate than you suggest here. It will also show that the rally was at least twice as large as you claim.

Also, just because the students you happened to talk to go to SouthWest Education Center does not mean that all the students at the rally attend that school. I was at the rally and I spoke to students from a variety of different schools. I didn't see any Stranger reporter when I was there, which was at the height of the rally during the speak-out. Did you come late when it was almost over?

In her interview with KPLU, Tanisha Bradford said that her group has no leaders because they all are leaders. I actually think that's a sign of intelligence, not ignorance. Our "leaders" in society, from CEOs to politicians seem to be running our society into the ground. Maybe it's a good thing that the 90s generation has a more democratic spirit of shared leadership.

I agree with other commentators, this post is mean-spirited and arrogant. I would just add that it is also highly inaccurate and unprofessional. I would side with these high school student's hope and ambition over your hopeless liberal hipster irony any day. You and these students represent almost different worlds in the same city. No wonder you can't understand them.

http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattle911/arc…

http://downtownseattle.komonews.com/cont…

http://www.kplu.org/post/seattle-high-sc…

http://www.seattleweekly.com/slideshow/w…

The students don't come off as articulate in this article because you hardly quote them and instead speak FOR them with your own snide editorializing. A quick glance at more professional media coverage of this event will show that the students were much serious and articulate than you suggest here. It will also show that the rally was at least twice as large as you claim.

Also, just because the students you happened to talk to go to SouthWest Education Center does not mean that all the students at the rally attend that school. I was at the rally and I spoke to students from a variety of different schools. I didn't see any Stranger reporter when I was there, which was at the height of the rally during the speak-out. Did you come late when it was almost over?

In her interview with KPLU, Tanisha Bradford said that her group has no leaders because they all are leaders. I actually think that's a sign of intelligence, not ignorance. Our "leaders" in society, from CEOs to politicians seem to be running our society into the ground. Maybe it's a good thing that the 90s generation has a more democratic spirit of shared leadership.

I agree with other commentators, this post is mean-spirited and arrogant. I would just add that it is also highly inaccurate and unprofessional. I would side with these high school student's hope and ambition over your hopeless liberal hipster irony any day. You and these students represent almost different worlds in the same city. No wonder you can't understand them.

http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattle911/arc…

http://downtownseattle.komonews.com/cont…

http://www.kplu.org/post/seattle-high-sc…

http://www.seattleweekly.com/slideshow/w…

They just wanted to skip school.

I hope at least one of them got laid for his or her efforts to stick it to the man.

What a disappointing article. First of all this reporter was there at the END of protest, more people were there earlier. I talked to this reporter and expressed my thanks for him being there. I wish I could take that back.
Second there is no verdict but there was inquest that reflected the jurors did not buy Ian birks story. The inquest process is confusing since jury, but no real verdict, just questions answered.
I assume what the students mean is they want the King County prosecutor to press charges so a verdict can be found.
Thirdly, budget cuts to schools show a lack of interest in the future for young people in seattle and the police conduct does affect our budget. A ten million dollar lawsuit was just won against police for guy thrown into wall and unable to walk or talk as result. And there will be anouther suit for Jon Williams. Who pays for this? we do.
Lastly, I admire these kids for letting us know they are unhappy about the police they took a stand for something and should be respected for it.