Two seniors from Hightstown High School organized a peaceful protest in honor of George Floyd on June 2, 2020, in Hightstown.
The event follows many like it around the world that have responded to Floyd’s death that was the result of a Minneapolis Police Officer placing a knee on his neck for eight minutes.
Participants offered many emotional testimonials and pleas at the event. In response, the four Hightstown Police officers in front of the protest walked forward and took a knee, a symbol of solidarity for the cause of racial justice.
Protest organizer Dan Alexandre, a high school senior, said of the officers’ act, “I’m sure no human can look at another human who lives in their town pleading [with] them to take part with them, and not get emotional.”
Alexandre says he contacted his friend Jadyn Childs, also a senior, around 1 p.m. just the day before the event to ask him to help organize it.
“I was just home yesterday and I knew I had to take action because being at home is not going to help anything,” Alexandre said.
Teachers and administrators from Hightstown High School also participated in the event.
William Kamps, a US History and Civic Action teacher at Hightstown who attended the protest, said, “I am passionate about supporting my students, and supporting the concept of justice in America. And knowing that Jadyn and other students were organizing this, I felt compelled to be here today.”
Chief Frank Gendron of the Hightstown Police Department said the “Hightstown Police Department is 100% supportive of the protest. I think both of [the organizers] did a spectacular job with, not only organizing the protest, but also with working with the police department to make sure it was done safely.”
After Childs agreed to help his classmate he says he was soon on the phone with the chiefs of Police for both Hightstown and East Windsor.
“I reiterated it one hundred times that this was a peaceful protest and I had no intentions on making it violent,” Childs said. No violence occurred at the event.
Along with the Hightstown Police, the East Windsor and Robbinsville Police Departments lent support.
Hightstown High School alum and current Mercer Business Administration student Jefferson Martinez said he had an emotional conversation with his mother about him attending the protest.
“I had to cry to my mom to tell her that I wanted to come here, like it was my duty for her, for my little brother…I have siblings, one is three the other is seven. I don’t want them to grow up in a country where they have to text their group chat ‘Hey, just got pulled over by the cops, if I don’t text back in thirty minutes call my mom,’” Martinez said.
