12:33 PM: A huge crowd of students has gathered outside Seattle Public Schools HQ, after walking out from high schools around the city, demanding the district pull back its seemingly sudden decision to split lunch periods.
We’d estimate more than 1,000 are here, even lining the railings on the Lander bridge overlooking the site.
At one point they were headed inside until told students were inside meeting with district leaders.
1:06 PM: The crowd had dwindled by the time the open-mic-style megaphone exhortations stopped around an hour in. One student invited the protesters to “stay and eat your lunch with us” and many did. We have to head back to the peninsula and will add video at HQ. We’ll also follow up on results of the student-district meeting.
2:11 PM: Video and photos added. The reasons given by speakers for opposing the lunch change are the same we’ve reported previously – the loss of club time, for one. And this student, who identified himself as from West Seattle High School – whose students were first to tell us about the change – took the mic to declare, “Lunch is a time for community”:
Police were seen monitoring the protest around its periphery, including blocking off the street on the east side of district HQ:
Also there to watch were at least three School Board candidates, one of whom – former board member Vivian Song – told us this seemed like deja vu, a case of district administration making a big change at the last minute and explaining it poorly, including inadequate information on what problem it was meant to solve and what other options were considered.
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