Hundreds Of Students Walkout, Occupy School & Chant “Free Colby” After Black Student Suspended For Standing Against Racist & Sexual Violence

Image features student protestors at Park Hill High School, Sept. 5th, 2024. Image Courtesy of Silas Lee (Black Pages Publishing) **This piece is written in collaboration with Black Pages Publishing** KANSAS CITY, MO – Hundreds of students at Park Hill High School in Kansas City, Missouri, participated in a mass walkout and protest against the school’s failure to protect students from sexual assault, sexual harassment, and hate speech. The school has become a centerpiece for controversy in the past week, following last week’s suspension of student-leader Colby Barker, a senior that stood up against a white male student that had sexually assaulted multiple female classmates and threatened to rape a girl in the bathroom.& After being suspended, Barker did not back down nor comply with the grotesque actions of the administration. Instead, he took to social media to share his experience and to spread awareness of the situation unfolding. In the initial interview when The Kansas City Defender first broke the story, Barker stated the situation unfolded by him peacefully and calmly approaching the student who had sexually assaulted multiple girls. “I went up to him, you know, very friendly,” Colby recounted. “I told him, just stay away from her....