More than 300 students and staff members from Casco Bay High School in Portland marched Monday afternoon from the school to the Allen Avenue bus stop to express support for the four black students who were the target of an alleged hate crime last week.
Principal Derek Pierce said the “Walk of Solidarity” was brief but symbolic.
“As Martin Luther King famously said, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” Pierce said in a news release. “We want to send a clear message to our community and our city that we will continue to stand up to hate and fear and that ‘We Belong Here.’ ”
The march took place around 2:30 p.m., after classes ended. Students carried signs that said “Love Will Win” and chanted “No hate, no fear, everyone is welcome here.”
Assistant Police Chief Vern Malloch said the alleged hate crime happened Friday afternoon when an older white teenager wearing an Insane Clown Posse hat with red trim made derogatory, racist statements to the black ninth-graders.
The teenager assaulted two of the students and waved a knife before fleeing. Police have not made any arrests.
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