A group of Oak Park and River Forest High School students participated in a walkout Nov. 9 to support Palestine and demand a ceasefire in Gaza. 

The walkout was organized by an Oak Park-based youth organization. Approximately 30 students left the school at about 11:45 a.m. and walked to the Starbucks at 711 Lake St., where they rallied for a boycott against the company. The students also protested a lawsuit filed by the company after the union Starbucks Workers United posted pro-Palestinian statements online.

Leading the protest were senior Liana Elshareif and her brother, junior Wael Elshareif. The pair led protest chants outside the doors of the coffee shop that lasted about two minutes before the group left and walked back to the school.

The group of protesters walked down the middle of the road, chanting. Police followed but did not intervene. Back at the school, the students gathered around the school’s main entrance. There, the Elshareifs gave a speech and demanded a ceasefire in Gaza, while also sharing their own experiences in Gaza last summer.

After the speech, many of the students at the protest took the CTA Green Line train down to the office of U.S. Rep. Danny Davis’ office, at  2815 W. 5th Ave. in Chicago to demand that Davis sign the Ceasefire NOW Resolution, which calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

The downtown portion of the protest lasted until about 1:20 p.m., until everyone slowly started to disperse. Some students left, and some continued on to another protest in West Town, near the location of a political fundraiser that President Joe Biden was expected to attend.