On Dec. 4, 2014 at 1:30 p.m., around 300 students from New Canaan High School left their classes for a student planned protest on the Eric Garner case. Eric Garner was allegedly killed in a chokehold by the New York Police Department on July 17, 2014, and on Dec. 3, 2014, a grand jury decided not to indict him.

Many students from New Canaan High School felt that it was their responsibility to stand up for what they thought was right.

“Even though we were not directly affected, what happened was unjust,” New Canaan student Olivia Barden ’17 said.

The student body president, Charlie Sosnick ’15, had posted in a school Facebook group the night before advising everybody to leave their last period class to meet near the flagpoles in front of the school that afternoon.

“The day was pretty exciting as the whole school got ready and heard about what was going to happen,” Sosnick said.

Another student at New Canaan High School, Jillian Gould ’15, explained that everybody in school knew about the protest, and most of them were excited to participate.

“I heard various people talking about it all over the hallways and library, and it was the topic of every single class that I was in,” Gould said.

According to Barden, when the students assembled outside of the school Charlie Sosnick lead the group in chants consisting of “I can’t breathe” and “every life matters.”

“We chanted and laid on the ground for ten minutes pretending we had died. It was exceptionally powerful to be standing and lying together as a student body in protest of something that we all believe so strongly in,” Gould said.

There were not major consequences for the students who participated in the rally, except some students received unexcused absences for leaving their classes.

Sosnick is proud of the student body with the success of the peaceful protest. “I think we added to a chorus of voices that are calling for justice in this situation,” he said.