On the night of November 28th, a protest took place throughout New York State, including on Westlake campus. This reported protest garnered significant controversy in the surrounding few weeks since the incident. 

 

Before this argument continues, allow me to note that I have nothing against a peaceful protest. I do, however, want to challenge the beliefs behind the protest. Personally, I believe that the protest was illegal, wasteful, and above all, pointless.

 

First: the location.  The protest took place on school property, making this particular protest technically illegal. As a refresher, the protest involved the placing of shoes on a school campus after dark - which by law is classified as trespassing. Even if this was a state-wide movement, one cannot be on private property after closing hours.

 

Second: the waste.  Albeit in the name of the protest, people still left their good quality shoes outside in the rain. Our district superintendent states, “An unannounced crowd arrived on campus and left shoes on the property… A number of students and staff were still onsite when this occurred…Though many are wet from the rain and wind, the shoes that were removed for the safety of our students and staff have been collected in bags.” 

 

Standing and holding up signs is one thing; leaving your shoes outside in wet weather conditions crosses the line entirely. On average, shoes cost around $70 - $100 each; if you have shoes you do not want, why not donate them?  Do not waste expensive articles of clothing on a protest that only made local news and saw no results. If you are going to waste valuable items, at least make sure the world knows about it and results are seen.

 

Third: pointless.  On top of that, the superintendent of our district cannot control what laws their state passes. If we compare this instance to everyday life, it is like asking a cashier at a grocery store why the prices of certain fruits are so high. The superintendent has no say as to what the state does; if the state passed a law that stated that everyone needed to learn French, the superintendent can do nothing about it. If the message was not clear before, the protest was pointless and unjustified.

 

As I rant, I am sure that some people are reading this and scoffing. ‘Of course the protest was justified,’ they would say. ‘The FDA and Fauci have not proclaimed that this vaccine is safe, so therefore, it is dangerous.’

 

While I appreciate people sharing their opinions, I am also allowed to rebuke this claim with my own opinion. If you say ‘The FDA did not approve it,’ you must live under a rock. According to the FDA News Release, they approved the first COVID-19 vaccine on August 21, 2021, and it was the Pfizer vaccine, the one vaccine that children under 12 could take.

 

Refusing to get vaccinated is a dangerous bet to take with your health; your children might be safe, but your parents or grandparents could be in danger.  To add context here, 32.8% of New York State remains unvaccinated. To put this in perspective, 19,572,319 people are currently residing in our state. About 6,458,865 are still unvaccinated, MayoClinic reports.

 

The moral of the story is: yes, feel free to protest, but don’t waste something valuable and understand that people (such as myself) are going to challenge your beliefs.

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Works Cited

 

mayoclinic. (n.d.). U.S. COVID-19 vaccine tracker: See your state's progress. Mayo Clinic. Retrieved December 13, 2021, from https://www.mayoclinic.org/coronavirus-covid-19/vaccine-tracker. 

Commissioner, O. of the. (n.d.). FDA approves first COVID-19 vaccine. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Retrieved December 13, 2021, from https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-covid-19-vaccine.