Midtown High School students walk out of school in protest over redistricting survey

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Several hundred students walked out of Midtown High School Friday in protest over a survey that proposes redistricting.

The students walked out during their transition period at 10:15 a.m. and protested at Piedmont Park with chants and posters.

Students say a survey was passed around Thursday that said Midtown High was on the verge of being overcrowded and there were two options to vote on - update facilities or rezone.

It was the specific neighborhoods listed to be rezoned that students took issue with. In a copy of the survey obtained by Atlanta News First, Atlantic Station, Georgia Tech, Home Park, Knight Park/Howell Station, Marietta Street Artery, and parts of Castleberry Hill, Downtown, English Avenue and Historic Westin Heights/Bankhead are the neighbors listed that would be redistricted to Washington High School.

Students tell Atlanta News First they feel these neighborhoods are being targeted specifically because they are minority areas, and they feel “white” neighborhoods are being left alone in this possible redistricting process.

Midtown High School staff ushered students back to class at 11 a.m.

“I feel like it’s going good, but I feel like we still haven’t been heard because they’re telling us to go back in the building, they’re going to get on the intercom and tell us this that and the third and write emails,” said senior Makai Strozier, who helped organize the protest.

A spokesperson for Atlanta Public Schools said they would release a statement to the media about the situation.

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