Over 30 percent of Norman High School’s students were absent during their first hour class while a student-staged protest against how the school handled students’ rape allegations occurred across the street.
Of the 1,992 enrolled at the school, 639 students were absent from their first hour class. Of those, 273 students’ parents had given parental permission to the school, according to a press release by Norman Public Schools after the protest.
As part of the walk-out protest, students silently left their classrooms at 9:20 a.m. and stood along Main Street across from the school in a crowd of hundreds, waving signs and yelling chants like “No justice, no peace” and “No means no.”
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The protest was organized after three girls at the school, who ranged in ages from 14 to 16, alleged that the same male classmate raped each during three separate incidents during the calendar year.
Neither the alleged victims nor the alleged assailant are currently attending Norman High School.
The protest’s purpose was to show the protester’s discontentment with how Norman High School has handled the rape allegations and the distribution of video footage of one of the alleged incidents, organizers said.
“The survivors were bullied out of the school,” said Danielle Brown, a student organizer for the rally. “It wasn’t handled correctly. They didn’t feel safe, and they want to come back.”
The district received one bullying report related to the alleged assaults and immediately responded to the report, according to the press release.
The alleged assailant was suspended for the remainder of the school year after school administrators became aware of a video he had taken during the alleged assault, according to the press release.
Norman police are investigating the alleged sexual assaults, two of which reportedly happened off campus and the third happened at Norman High School, according to the press release.
Cleveland County District Attorney Greg Mashburn said he was aware of a possible fourth victim who was allegedly assaulted by the same person about two years ago, The Associated Press reported.
No arrests have been made so far.
Another goal of the walk out was to raise the profile of the situation at Norman High School and grab outsiders’ attention, organizers said.
“We want to make sure if this happens again, it doesn’t get swept under the rug,” Nicholas Nathaniel said. “We want it to get noticed.”
Nathaniel is a founding member of the group of students behind the protest called “Yes, All Daughters.” The group has a Facebook page and a Twitter account where visitors can receive updates and read the group members' full list of demands.
“We would like to see implementation of anti-bullying, anti-harassment [and] sexual harassment education,” said Stacey Wright, an adult organizer. “We’d like to see these victims return to school safely.”
Several hundred people showed up in total — a mix of past and present Norman High School students and Norman residents. Norman Police Department closed the 900 block of Main Street once students began to walk out and reopened it at 10 a.m.
The turnout exceeded initial expectations, Brown said. When group members first planned the event, they hoped for about 100 people, but 1,000 individuals RSVP’d for the event.
