High School Students Protest Trump for Second Day

In a second day of protests by young people, high school students in D.C. and Maryland walked out of class Tuesday to protest against President-elect Donald Trump

Young people who said they went to Benjamin Banneker Academic High School, Woodrow Wilson High School and Sidwell Friends School in Northwest D.C. protested outside the Trump International Hotel in downtown D.C.

Hundreds of students chanted outside the luxury hotel and held signs that read "My Body My Rights," "We Are Wilson High School" and "Don't Make America Hate Again."

"We all came out here from all different types of schools across the city. We came and we united as one," one student said.

Video footage from News4's Shomari Stone showed a young person climbing onto a windowsill of the hotel, standing and waving a rainbow flag. Another young person climbed to the top of the Benjamin Franklin statue on Pennsylvania Avenue. 

Students left Wilson High at noon and rode the Metro to the Trump hotel. 

Chopper4 footage showed students leaving High Point High School in Beltsville, Maryland. There were reports the students blocked Powder Mill Road. 

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The students began to march to the Capitol Building about 1 p.m. Police said they were monitoring the demonstrators and establishing rolling road closures as needed. 

In a letter to parents, Wilson High principal Kimberly Martin said the school defends the students' right to self-expression and peaceful protest. But she warned that anyone attending the protest will receive an "unexcused absence for the periods they miss."

Students from at least seven high schools in the D.C. area have protested in the past two days. 

The protest comes a day after about 800 students from Montgomery Blair High School walked out of class and onto the school's football field, Montgomery County Public Schools spokeswoman Gboyinde Onijala said. Many students returned to class, but some marched from the school to downtown Silver Spring, about 3 miles away. 

The school allowed the peaceful protest to occur on school property, during school hours. However, it was expected to remain on campus, schools spokesman Derek Turner said. 

Many students said they felt that staying on the football field would not make enough of a statement.

The students chanted "We reject the president-elect," "not my president" and "no justice, no peace."

Students from Blair High were joined along the way by students from Northwood High School and Albert Einstein High School.

"We're not protesting for a new president. We're protesting to have our voices heard," one student said.

After about an hour, students left the mall area and marched down Georgia Avenue, police said. 

The protesters were peaceful except someone threw a bottle from the top deck of the mall parking lot. There were no reports of injuries, and no one was arrested.

Some students who participated in the protest Tuesday said they plan to protest again on Inauguration Day.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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