the pro-Palestinian movement isn't limited to higher end several students at Eastern Regional High School in Camden County were suspended late last week after a walk out in support for Palestine was cancelled by school administrators the students are now accusing leadership of trying to censor them but District officials defended the action telling senior correspondent Joanna Gagis the event was cancelled out of safety concerns the walk out was organized to um speak out and really respect um you know the innocent lives lost in Gaza and we really want for to stop because we just want people to stop being killed students at Eastern Regional High School in Vorhees were planning a walk out last week to protest the deaths of innocent people in Gaza but it was cancelled by school administrators and three students ended with suspensions Ash Taris was one of them after the walkout out was canceled we received an email and um we went I went to the office with a couple of my peers and I went there and all we wanted was simply to talk to the principal and um he tried to intimidate us out of the room um you know trying to like threaten to write us up in suspension and not even he was really dismissing us he wouldn't even talk to us um and we were just trying to schedule a meeting and get a meeting to have communication um and and I got suspended because I wouldn't leave the room without a meeting being scheduled um and they called it insubordination the walk out was canceled after Camden County Commissioner Jeff Nash sent an email to the Vorhees superintendent raising concerns about how it was being advertised and who was attending the walk out had started to receive uh outside support uh advertisements for the walkout went viral inviting non- students and non-parents to participate and became what we thought to be a dangerous situation for the students um especially given the rise of anti-Semitism uh in our community and throughout the country and if not the world tensions around these Palestinian protests have risen dramatically in recent weeks leading to arrests and other disciplinary actions on college campuses around the country students at Columbia University last night barricaded themselves inside their campus Administrative Building all of it leading to a heightened distrust between the Jewish and pal inian communities we reached out to the principal and got no response but the Vorhees superintendent said in a statement that a new United rally in support of basic human rights planned for May 20th is intended to demonstrate support for innocent people on both sides of the conflict but Pro Palestinian students say they won't attend and that they're being treated differently than their Jewish peers who staged a similar walkout after the Hamas attacks on October 7th the walk out on October 15th faced none of his push back and it was for the same exact premise it was for the same exact thing it was for innocent lives lost so for us to receive this push back we don't you don't understand we are waiting for answers for that they say they've received hateful messages on social media accusing them of being anti-jewish and pro Hamas as a student group we never said any of those statements it was just kind of disheartening to see a grown adult putting these labels on us that we've never identified with but this student who wants to remain anonymous says it won't quench their efforts just kind of makes us want to push our point out even more to kind of just push past these narratives placed on us um and to just show people that this is not who we are our message has been clear that we were standing up for the innocent lives lost with the war going on in Gaza their suspensions ended today and they hope to come to an agreement with the district on a new walkout for NJ Spotlight News I'm Joanna Gagis [Music]