Sydney students to take part in pro-Palestinian rally

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Sydney school students are following on from their Melbourne and Adelaide counterparts and will leave school to take part in pro-Palestine rallies this afternoon.

Transcript

00:00 There is expected to be some disruption around Sydney's CBD this lunchtime with students

00:06 planning to protest in support of Palestinians.

00:10 The group Students for Palestine has organised this protest for 1.30 outside Sydney's Town

00:16 Hall and they're encouraging students to walk out at lunchtime or skip school entirely today

00:22 in order to demand an end to the war and to protest the rising death toll in Gaza.

00:27 And this follows similar protests that were held in Melbourne and Adelaide yesterday where

00:31 hundreds of students attended in support for Palestinians.

00:36 In Melbourne they marched from Flinders Street Station to Melbourne Central while in Adelaide

00:41 they gathered on the steps of Parliament.

00:43 In New South Wales the Premier and Education Minister have this week been calling on students

00:48 not to attend this protest saying that if children want to change the world they need

00:53 to get an education.

00:55 And the government also says that teachers should not be supporting this student action

00:59 and that they're discouraged from discussing politics inside the classroom.

01:04 Earlier this morning the Education Minister Prukar spoke to ABC News and she said that

01:10 school is compulsory and that students are not allowed to skip class today.

01:14 Take a listen.

01:15 There won't be excuses for children that attend this rally instead of being in class.

01:24 They will obviously be marked as absent.

01:28 There'll be other repercussions for students that are supposed to be in class today.

01:35 In a statement the Department of Education says that today is a school day and that children

01:40 are expected to attend unless they have a legitimate reason not to.

01:45 And we are also expecting a police presence at this protest.

01:48 New South Wales Police say they are aware of this planned action and will be monitoring

01:52 the situation accordingly.

01:54 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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