Demonstrators with hand-lettered signs were at the West Orange-Cove CISD administration building Friday morning to march against putting two senior football players into the Academic Education Center. The center is next door to the administration building.
Bianca Garrett, holding a microphone with a speaker, led about 20 people in chanting words like “Let our boys back in school, overturn this rule.”
They were marching in support of Morris Joseph and Rufus Joseph. The two are among four young men charged with aggravated assault in Galveston County in connection with hitting or kicking an 18-year-old Orange County man who sustained serious head injuries. The injuries were during a brawl at Crystal Beach during spring break.
Three of the accused are West Orange-Stark football players and the other is a former player now on a college team.
Even though the four have not been indicted or convicted, the school district has placed the students involved at the alternative center and prohibited them from participating in school or UIL events.
The demonstrators were protesting that action, saying the students needed to be back at the regular high school to finish their senior year with their classmates. The signs included some reading “No Justice, No Sleep,” “Stand up for our boys off the field! They are more than state champs!”
One sign called for the resignation of the superintendent and staff. Garrett on the speaker said the superintendent could overrule the district’s requirements to send the students to the academic center.
When the demonstrators began, they were in parking spaces in front of the alternative school. An Orange patrol officer drove up and said he had been asked to get them to move off school property. He said the group could legally walk on the public sidewalk; so they moved to the sidewalk in front of the administration building, a few feet away.
Later in the day the protestors showed up on 16th Street flashing their homemade signs.
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