Students at Evanston Township High School demonstrated Tuesday in protest of recent grand jury decisions not to indict police officers in connection with the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.

The demonstration took place during a morning passing period, the school said. Students sat in the school’s hallways in silence for four and a half minutes to represent the four and a half hours Brown lay in the street in Ferguson, Missouri, after a police officer shot him in August.

The grand jury’s Dec. 3 decision not to indict the New York police officer who put Garner in a chokehold came just over a week after the decision in the Ferguson case. The rulings in Missouri and New York have prompted protests nationwide. 

A majority of the more than 3,000 students at ETHS participated in the demonstration, along with teachers and staff, the school said.

“The silence during the passing period, a time of chaos and loud noises, will provide a space for students to feel their emotions,” ETHS student Jordan Rosen-Kaplan said in the news release. “These recent tragedies have made ongoing and underlying problems of racism in America highly visible.”

ETHS principal Marcus Campbell said he was proud of the students.

“They were reflective, respectful and responsible as they showed solidarity with the protests that are happening all over this country,” he said in the news release.

ETHS is not the first high school to protest the decisions. High school students have staged demonstrations in other cities including San Francisco, Boston and New York City.

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