Students to host a rally on May 12th to demand the City of Grand Rapids adopt sanctuary policies and justice for Da’Quain Johnson

On Tuesday, beginning at 5pm at Calder Plaza, Grand Rapids area students will be holding a rally with speakers, music, sidewalk chalk and other activities before going to the Grand Rapids City Commission meeting.

Student organizers will be demanding that the City of Grand Rapids adopt the 6 sanctuary policies that Movimiento Cosecha has been demanding since January of 2025, along with demanding justice for Da’Quain Johnson who was shot and killed by the GRPD in February.

One of the student organizers I spoke with said that they want safe communities and safety for their families. They also said that they don’t want to constantly be worried about whether or not their families will be abducted by ICE or if the GRPD will kill them.

Many of the students who are involved in organizing the rally have been the same students that have organized school walkouts to protest ICE. GRIID has written about three of those student walkouts that were organized at the Museum School, Southwest Middle and High School, along with Innovation Central High School.

Many of the these same students have also been organizing as part of the SALT student union, which has been making demands of the Grand Rapids Public Schools for several years now over a variety of issues. Over the past year GRPS students have been demanding that the GRPS adopt firm sanctuary policies for the district. Since last fall these same students have also been making demands to increase the salary of GRPS teachers and supporting the teacher’s union.

Students are inviting people to go up to the City Commission chambers around 6:30pm in order to get a seat.

A brief history of students and social movements in Grand Rapids

In 1965 South High students  organized for cultural autonomy it what became known as the Mustache Affair.

High School and College students organized against the Vietnam War, with protests, marches, draft resistance and other forms of direct action.

In the early 1970s at the first Earth Day in Grand Rapids, Grand Rapids Junior College students organized a protest.

During the South African Anti-Apartheid Movement students and community members got the Grand Rapids Public School Board to divest. This action was followed by students at Calvin College who also got that school to divest.

In the 1980s, during the Central American Solidarity Movement, there were high school and college students who were involved with a variety of action, such as street theater and holding concerts to raise funds for solidarity work.

During the lead up to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and after the US war on Iraq had begun, there were high school and college students involved in the anti-war movement, some who participated in civil disobedience and were involved in numerous public protests.

One last example involve GVSU students that were part of the Students Against Sweatshops movement that were involved with a campaign to support the bus driver’s union fight for a new contract. Because of their solidarity efforts, the Mayor of Grand Rapids sent cops to the student’s homes to intimidate them, which resulted in a letter of condemnation from the United Farm Workers.