Peaceful protest

Valley Central alumni organize Black Lives Matter protest in Montgomery

By Kyle Adams
Posted 6/10/20

In the wake of the death of George Floyd, who was killed by a Minneapolis police officer after kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes, protests have taken over cities and towns across the …

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Peaceful protest

Valley Central alumni organize Black Lives Matter protest in Montgomery

Posted

In the wake of the death of George Floyd, who was killed by a Minneapolis police officer after kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes, protests have taken over cities and towns across the country.

Saturday June 6, marked the first protest to come to Montgomery and it was organized by Valley Central alumni. It was held at Veterans Memorial Park near the pavilion next to the baseball fields.

“The idea started coming together on Thursday [June 4]. I posted on Facebook and said we needed to come together as a community to protest,” said Amanda Sepulveda, the primary organizer.

“When I got here this place was packed and I got goosebumps. I did not expect the turnout that we got. Everything was full. The parking lot was packed and I didn’t know what to say.”

While surrounding towns like Newburgh, Middletown and New Paltz held protests earlier in the week, Montgomery’s streets had been quiet up until Saturday afternoon.

“The amount of support was incredible from the beginning. Summer Tuttle commented, saying that she’d help with anything we needed and has been amazing the whole time,” Sepulveda said.

Saradon Shi, Tuttle and Sepulveda are listed as the protest’s organizers on the Facebook event page.

Sepulveda spoke about the support she received from the community while organizing.

“There was someone who owns a water company and brought a water truck. Others brought a table and were handing out snacks and water to people for free. People on the streets were giving us water as we marched. It was amazing.”

She continued, speaking about her experience with the Montgomery Police Department and paramedics.

“They were great. They were great. I called them and told them I wanted to do a protest. They said to give them a time, give them a location and that they were there to help us. I thought it was going to be a long process and have some issues. There wasn’t any red tape or hoops to jump through at all.”

As the group of several hundred Valley Central students, alumni and Montgomery residents gathered at Veterans Memorial Park and began to march, officers blocked off traffic on Union St. allowing the group to walk towards the elementary school.

“I was surprised with how many officers there were and there were also medics that volunteered to be here. There were two ambulances which blew me away. I thought I was going to pass out,” she said with a laugh.

As the group marched, they were met with several residents coming out of their homes to watch. Some younger children had their lawn chairs at the end of their driveway. Other residents were passing out water as the protest passed by.

There was one resident with a “Trump 2020” sign on his house who was chanting “all live matter” and other pro-Trump slogans at the protesters. The group responded by continuing their chants of “I can’t breathe,” among other chants, at an increased volume.

“I was actually surprised that he was the only one,” Sepulveda said.

“I saw him and I just felt bad because he’s probably really closed-minded. We weren’t protesting Trump, we were protesting injustice and he couldn’t even support that. In a way, by supporting him, you don’t accept me or you don’t accept my people.”

Sepulveda hopes this protest starts a continuing conversation in the town of Montgomery and in the Valley Central School District, to confront racial injustice that has largely been ignored.

“I think that people are exhausted. I think that people are fed up. This needed to be done. People needed to start speaking up, including myself. We won’t see a change if we come out today and this is the last day we say anything.”

Sepulveda continued speaking about her experiences at Valley Central.

“There were teachers who made me feel like I didn’t belong there. There were teachers who made me feel like I was a bad person. I didn’t see it as racism at the time; I just thought they didn’t like me.”

While there were several teachers in the crowd that came to support the cause, that didn’t change her thoughts from her high school experience.

“I am so appreciative of the teachers who are speaking up and fight for us. It doesn’t change anything though, because I didn’t see the teachers here who were saying those things or allow racism to happen,” Sepulveda said.

“I just think that there needs to be more diversity in all the schools.”

Prior to the march, one of the speakers highlighted the youth of the crowd. “Where are your parents? Where are your grandparents? We need their help in this too,” he said.

Sepulveda gave her thought on the youth of the crowd.

“That hit me because I didn’t think of it like that. It’s so true. It’s not to say that [the older generations] don’t support, there were several older people on the streets cheering us as we went by, but I do think that more of them need to come out. Today it was basically all VC people. It was a very young crowd.”

Bringing up the rear of the march was a Valley Central teacher who Sepulveda credits with a lot of the support.

“Love Jurgens. That’s on the record,” she said of Bob Jurgens, who was adding some noise to the crowd, being completely unafraid to use his truck’s horn.

“Even though I experienced racism at Valley Central, I didn’t let that take away from my experience.”