You’ll never silence the voice of the voiceless

Today was, without a doubt, the most exciting school day I have ever had.

I use my cellphone as an alarm clock, and this morning when I picked it up to put it to Snooze mode, I saw that I had a message. I opened it, read it with bleary eyes, and suddenly perked up when the words finally sunk into my head. The message was from Princess and she said that the seniors and juniors would be having a rally this morning. Our objective: to ask Sister My to resign. The plan was to converge at 6:30 at Starbucks in Rockwell, literally a stone’s throw away from my school , and walk all the way to school at around 7:00 a.m. and urge everyone else to join us. Finally, some action! It was already past 6:30 PM, so I got ready as quick as I could, and left the house without my camera and without eating breakfast. Stupid, stupid.

At first, I thought that the seniors would be a no-show. When I got there, only twelve seniors were present and some twenty or twenty five juniors. We were hoping that the other seniors would come before the bell rang because after that, they would all be locked in the Audio-Visual (AV) room. Sister My is so devious. All of a sudden the seniors are going to have a recollection today at the AV room, and the instructions are that we have to take our meals in there and not leave the AV room for any reason. She obviously wanted us to be kept in the dark about the things talked about in the PTA meeting! According to my friends who were in the AV room, there were teachers guarding the door, so even if they wanted to join the rally they couldn’t.

Fortunately a number of seniors decided to go to school late, and they were able meet us at Starbucks. At around 7:45 there were around fifty or sixty juniors and seniors present. We decided not to waste any more time, and so we began our five-minute march to school. At first I walked with Kapst and Annie, but they were too slow so I made my way into the front. I mean hey, I missed the whole EDSA II People Power; this was my first rally and all and I didn’t want to miss anything. We began walking with high spirits, and people driving past us were staring. But as we approached the school building we all started feeling nervous about the whole thing.

Several parents were already waiting for us at school, and when we entered the gates they clapped and cheered. They were really very supportive, and whatever doubts we had about rallying faded. We all cheered and made a lot of noise and started making our way down the road. People were opening the windows of their classrooms to see what the noise was all about, and when they did that we yelled, “Baba na kayo! Walk out!” Nobody wanted to join us at first, but after one sophomore class had their class picture taken, they ran towards us, shouting and the cheering.

And then as we started chanting “Sister, resign! Sister, resign!” when we reached the building’s main entrance, Sister My herself stepped outside smiling like an idiot. Seeing her looking at us calmly, as though she didn’t have a clue as to why we were demanding for her to resign, really got me all fired up. I chanted so loud, my throat hurt. I could tell that everyone was starting to feel scared, because we started backing away from her slowly. But then Gide got her rosary out and began saying the Apostles’ Creed. We all started praying, and even though I’m really not one for praying the rosary, I have to admit that it gave us some sort of courage. People started to look less afraid, and they began moving forward again. And it was weird because Sister My was praying with us too, still smiling. She’s got some sort of mental problem, I swear.

Somewhere between the third and fourth mystery, the rest of the juniors and another sophomore class ran out to join us. And when we were done with the rosary, the seniors decided to “rescue” those who were still stuck in the AV room. We ran inside the school, and I swear, I really shouldn’t have skipped breakfast. With only a caramel macchiato to sustain me, I began to feel slightly dizzy. But with the last of my strength I managed to make it to the stairs that led to the AV room. There’s a gate that closed off the stairs, and one of the janitors was holding it shut. The juniors and sophomores ran behind seniors, and together we started pushing at the gate. I felt so weak from being crushed by so many bodies, but after a minute of that, the janitor decided that he had no other choice but to let us up.

It was all chaos after that. All of the high school students went downstairs to the rally, and then it didn’t feel like a rally anymore. More like…I dunno, a really huge street party with one major purpose. I guess I would’ve enjoyed the experience more if my friends were with me, but Denilou is pro-admi and Maricris doesn’t really care and Angelica said her mom didn’t allow her to join. Corny.

They held the PTA meeting at 9 a.m. as scheduled, and the only things that changed were that students were permitted to witness it and that Sister My was nowhere to be found. At first only pro-administration people were allowed to have the floor. And it was really annoying because even though someone from the DECS (Department of Education) was there, she kept saying that we had to write our complaints in a formal letter. Why the hell should we write a letter and wait a long time fora reply when there’s already a person from the DECS here? Stupid. After the pro-admi people were done talking, they suddenly said that the meeting was adjourned. That caused a small fight between the parents, and I found it a bit amusing to see grown men pushing each other like a bunch of eight-year olds.

The meeting took around two hours and by the time it was over, my head hurt and my brain was filled with way too much information. The bottom line is this: those who want Sister My to resign had to sign a petition so we could show the head of her order that we’re really serious about this.
Kung di pa magre-resign yang bwiset na ‘yan, ewan ko na lang. I signed the petition, and since school was cancelled for the rest of the day, I left with my mom and sister soon after.

Even though all the excitement and the shouting exhausted me, it was a very exhilirating, wonderful experience and I’m very glad that I became a part of it. I mean, how many high school seniors organize a protest rally against the school administration three weeks before graduating? My only regret is that I forgot to bring the fucking camera. I have no pictures to show. Damn.