Waterloo Region students stage walkout calling for ceasefire in Gaza

Students from various WRDSB schools participate in a march in support of Palestine on Thursday Nov. 2, 2023. (Dan Lauckner/CTV Kitchener)

Dozens of Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB) students walked out of class Thursday, joining growing calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Around 50 students and supporters marched in Uptown Waterloo, chanting slogans like “Free Palestine” and “WRDSB, you can’t silence me.”

Shatha Mahmoud, with the Palestinian Youth Movement, said students feel like their voices are being suppressed by teachers and admin.

“There’s been a lot of intimidation and silencing and suppression of Palestinian students and their allies at high schools,” Mahmoud said.

“For example, WRDSB has told students that they couldn’t wear keffiyeh, which is a Palestinian scarf, they weren’t allowed to wave flags. If they were expressing any sentiment or support for the Palestinian people and the Palestinian plight, calling for a ceasefire for example, they were silenced or told to leave the premises.”

In an email, WRDSB communications officer Estefanía Brandenstein said the board is not aware of any situations like the ones Mahmoud described and added that students are allowed to wear keffiyeh in school.

“The Waterloo Region District School Board respects and supports the right of students to advocate for causes that are important to them and peacefully assemble. We recognize the direct and indirect impacts of the traumatic events taking place in the Middle East. We are committed to supporting the safe and appropriate expression of student views,” Brandenstein said.

Last week, student-led walkouts were held at a several Toronto schools.

On Tuesday, protestors staged sit-ins at 17 MP offices, including Lloyd Longfield’s Guelph constituent office.

More than 8,800 people have been killed in Gaza, the majority of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. Israeli forces have been bombarding the narrow strip with aerial strikes ever since Oct. 7, when Hamas militants launched a surprise attack.

Around 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, most of them civilians in the Oct. 7 attack. In addition, Hamas took roughly 240 hostages from Israel.

An emergency session of the UN General Assembly passed a resolution last week calling for a humanitarian pause that would allow aid to enter Gaza and give trapped civilians time to escape.

Although Canada has backed calls for humanitarian pauses, Canada abstained from the final vote after the body rejected a Canada-led amendment that would’ve added language to formally condemn Hamas for its Oct. 7 attack.

With files from CTV National News