‘Arms are for hugging’, ‘rhinos deserve to be horny too’ and ‘no more pony in our polony’ were a few examples of what the pupils chanted on the day.
Kim Tatham, a Grade 12 pupil said, “The more superstitious among us would agree that Friday the 13th is not a good day to do something out of the ordinary, but as history has taught us, doing things out of the ordinary gets people’s attention. Which is exactly what we had set out to do.”
She said the matric history class, consisting of 17 budding historians and one passionate teacher, swapped their traditional school uniform for the loose fitting and tie-dyed clothes preferred by hippies, and enthusiastically marched around the school chanting various protests. “This protest has become an annual event for the grade 12s and one that all history students look forward to.”
Tatham said after studying Civil Society Protest, the pupils fully understood the power of protest and just how invigorating it was to stand up for a cause that they believed in. “By protesting something close to our hearts, we cement the lessons learned from protest groups of the 1960s/70s. If Martin Luther King Jr could get equal rights for African Americans and The Women’s Movement could get control over their reproductive rights, then maybe the Beaulieu College history students will be able to save the rhino or at least inform others that they should be doing so. Every act of activism counts,” she said.
