Over the summer, a series of protests and riots arose after the murder of George Floyd. And many were used to support the Black Lives Matter movement. These events sparked a debate on whether or not these protests and riots were justified or not.

We as students, who may be young and are told to suppress political opinions because we’re “too young to know what’s going on,” have developed many different opinions on the events going on around the country. Whether it was from parents, social media, news, or even our friends, students have gathered their own opinions.

“It’s a movement that has been going on for a long time and there is no excuse for why people of different race/color should be treated any different,” an anonymous senior said. “They are human too, with rights like everyone else.”

Although some people have a positive reaction to BLM and the protests, others have opposite opinions on the protests.

“I think they have a good cause, I just think they’re going about it the wrong way,” an anonymous junior said. “I think that because I just feel like the riots and everything, and if you’re not condemning the riots, then it’s not necessarily condemning it, and it’s supporting it almost. I don’t necessarily believe in systemic racism, I think that people are racist, not systems. And then there’s no legality that is in place that isn’t preventing black people from getting ahead, whereas Asians are ahead of whites because there’s no system against that.”

However, there are others that are against the movement as a whole.

“It picks and chooses which Black lives matter, to me,” another anonymous freshman said. “And I think it’s a political agenda to get the black vote. They don’t really care about black cops really, black Trump supporters. Black property owners’ properties destroyed in riots and loots. And, also it’s the idea of if you’re white, you automatically have it better than a black person, which I don’t think is true at all.”

However, there are people in this school that agree with both the movement and the protests.

“Well, I honestly think that Black lives do matter,” an anonymous freshman said. “And the stuff that’s just going on with them is not really okay. I support it and I do support like all the protests. I do support all of that and I want to go to one and like help. I love what they’re doing.”