by Kelsey Lester-Perry

After weeks of camping out on campus, reading stories about layoffs in the paper and noticing hikes in their tuition, De Anza students marched to San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza Thursday for a Day of Action to protest state education cuts.

Five buses arrived at the campus at 1 pm to pick up students. The remaining five buses were sent back according to organizer Kenny Li, and the money was refunded to DASB. An estimated 400 students drove themselves.

Over 500 students signed the waivers permitting them to attend the event. De Anza Restoring Education and Students for Justice members spent the morning rallying more students to attend the protest, in front of Tent City in the main quad.

Before the buses departed for San Francisco, President Brian Murphy presented students with 500 red sashes the faculty made for them.

“Every one of us, are deeply appreciative of what you’re doing.” Murphy said. “We’re in complete solidarity and support this work.”

“It’s very exciting, it’s very heartening,” said Murphy just before the buses left the loading zone.

Each bus was led by an organizer who rallied students and motivated them with chants, snacks, and sing-a-longs. On bus number one, Marlo Custodio used a megaphone to encourage students to chant well known protest hymns like “the students united, will never be divided.” Students were asked to come up with their own chants. One of the more popular chants was “Say hey, say ho, ‘cali’ schools, they need more dough.”

Students were dropped off on the corner of 24^th and Mission Street. The crowd joined with other protesters from various k-12 and other community colleges along the way. They arrived at the civic center after marching through the heart of the Mission district around 4:45pm.

“Whoever planned the route was a genius,” said SFJ member Matthew Bradley about walking next to Bart stations and viewing the working class poor. “There are a lot of problems out there in the real world.”

A raucous crowd greeted De Anza students. They met in front of a large semi-truck, which was converted into a stage. There was a band, faculty, teachers, union, teamsters, and student speakers atop the flatbed truck. The United Educators of San Francisco hosted the evening’s entertainment.

Custodio opened the ceremonies with a spoken word performance about the importance of student activism, waking up from apathy, and the fact that civic involvement can be very effective.

About 25 other students, teachers and community representatives gave motivational and informative speeches and performances before Cain Ramirez spoke on behalf of De Anza.

“You know what?” Ramirez said. “This could fail, but in all honesty, I kept pushing forward, because I was hopeful. I was optimistic. And here I am speaking before thousands upon thousands of people from all over northern California!”

The day of action in San Francisco remained non-violent. San Francisco police department sent out groups of about five officers in various spots of the plaza. They also had two vans, one SUV, and four cars of police parked on Polk and Grove in case of riots.

A crowd of protestors also chanted in front of city hall, closing down the street. Police were unable to do anything except to put up a gate in front of city hall’s steps and make sure the protest stayed non-violent.

De Anza students who took charter buses left the zealous crowd at around 8 pm. After leaving the rally, student morale was still very high. The chanting did not stop in San Francisco.

Bus leaders had students sign petitions to instate the California Democracy Act on the way back to De Anza. The act would allow a normal 2/3 majority when passing budget laws, instead of a supermajority which prevents public education from receiving a lot of state funds.

“It was extremely successful,” said D.A.R.E. organizer, Ali Haji. “I’m pumped up for the next one. I feel really hopeful and I want the protests to keep growing.”

“Just seeing it all together was amazing,” student Amira Farah said.

The buses of students returned to a performance by The Blank Manuscript and other music behind the Hinson center. Student’s gathered around for one large group photo and conversation of what happened that day.

“Before the march there was a lot of energy. After there was twice as much,” Gabriel Rodriguez said.

“We succeeded in letting the California government know they are depriving us of our resources to be successful,” student Tevita Tapabalu said.