Solidarité pour la vie
The Story of Seth Donnelly
Seth Donnelly grabs the bullhorn and turns it on, gathering the attention of the crowd drawn in front of him. Students stand shoulder to shoulder, holding banners, signs, flags and speakers, waiting for instruction. He briefs them on the plan, the protest route and what to expect, and gives them a reminder to be respectful. The crowd of teens is quiet as they listen to him, for today he is their leader. At his queue the students begin to line up,
all following behind two girls holding a white banner with red text that reads “I can’t breathe.” This is the march for justice. On December 10th, 2014, Seth Donnelly led a group of over 200 students, faculty and community members in a peaceful protest through Los Altos. While discussing current events, specifically the up and coming Black Lives Matter movement in his civics
class, students expressed interest in wanting to do more. The Black Lives Matter movement focuses on the police brutality towards people of color and more specifically the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. On August 9th, 2014 officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black male, following an altercation between the two. The city where this happened, Ferguson, demanded justice for Brown, protesting and looting
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ensued. Wilson was not indicted. Just one month earlier Eric Garner died in New York after the police put him in a chokehold during an arrest and he could not breathe, after being arrested on suspicion of selling cigarettes illegally. The medical examiner found that Garner’s cause of death was ‘compression of the neck’ and ruled it a homicide, yet the officer involved was never indicted. People all over were outraged at the lack of justice and took to the streets and a violent and nonviolent manner. With time the movement only grew, reaching from coast to coast in areas such as Baltimore, Chicago, Oakland, New York City, Berkeley etc. Not only did we see outrage and protests in the US but also in London where 76 protesters were arrested while showing solidarity with the United States. Donnelly not only encouraged his students to hold a peaceful
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protest, he supported them by providing a space for them to have meetings, teaching them how to do press releases and be an advisor. Donnelly said “It’s an important message to send throughout the country that wherever you are, you don’t have to go to San Fransisco to be political; you can do it right in your own backyard.” And thus, led by Seth’s charismatic leadership, the Youth Alliance for Justice formed. Seth Donnelly has been a teacher in the Los AltosMountain View Union High School District for 16 years. In 1993 he graduated from college and moved to Chicago where he remained for almost 7 years of his life. While in Chicago, Donnelly was the director of the Illinois Coalition Against The Death Penalty. Their goal was to abolish the death penalty in Illinois and also free innocent people on death row. Donnelly worked with a small group of
people who would visit death row and walk up and down the tiers, talking to inmates and taking note of the living conditions. One of the main things they did was speak to inmates one on one and hear their story, and it became evident to them that several people had been wrongfully convicted and deserved to be free. One particular case was a man named Aaron Patterson, who had been convicted of a double homicide and was sentenced to death. His mother was a member of the coalition Donnelly worked with. He stated, “Aaron is an African American man and we did more research and we became convinced that his claims of innocence were correct. His mom always believed him but myself and some outsiders, the more we got to know her, the more we got to know him, [and] the more we researched it, it became clear that he had been tortured by the Chicago police.
He had given a confession that was illegitimate and there was no real reliable evidence to tie him to this home invasion and double homicide in south Chicago and that the police had pinned it on him” (Donnelly). Over a span of nearly 7 years Donnelly and the other members of the coalition reached out to political leaders such as Barack Obama, while he was State Senator. He said that he met with Obama in his office and discussed his case with him. Although the torture had been proven and the commander of chief of the Chicago police had been fired, the state refused to reopen the case. There were several serious claims of innocence and they weren’t being heard. Donnelly refused to back down, leading peaceful protests and spreading the word, he was even arrested on multiple occasions. One person he noted to be key in their fight was a woman named Connie Howard, a political official who “spearheaded the cam-
paign among elected officials to get them to speak out on behalf of Aaron and other torture victims” (Donnelly). After 7 years of spreading the word on the street, protesting, rallying and pushing back, the Governor of Illinois pardoned Aaron, who had spent 13 years on death row before being freed. When Aaron was freed, however, Donnelly was already in California and had been flying back and forth to help out when he could. He recalled the experience of flying back the weekend Aaron got out, noting that he stayed with Aaron and his family. One memory he speaks of fondly is going to church with Aaron, the first time Aaron had been to church in 15 years, when the pastor said,“Aaron Patterson has come home.” However, not all Donnelly’s efforts were met with success. There was once a man he could not save. He had gotten to know the man while he was in Chi-
cago and fully believed he was innocent. Donnelly went on to speak about how the supposed confession given by the man was illegitimate due to the fact that he was functionally illiterate and the confession was written in two different sets of handwriting. The coalition attempted to stop the execution like they had Aaron’s but were unsuccessful. He said the last he ever heard from him was the night before he got executed, when he said “thanks for trying.” The majority of Donnelly’s activist jobs were unpaid and he did them out of the kindness of his heart and just wanting to make a difference in the world. It is safe to say that even after he left Chicago, his activist spirit stayed with him and he indeed brought it here to our conservative town, Los Altos.
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Donnelly advisors several clubs on the Los Altos High campus, such as Amnesty International, Haiti Solidarity, and the newest addition, Youth Alliance for Justice. Amnesty International is the largest human rights organization in the world outside of the UN. They focus on human rights, they work with people such as political prisoners. Amnesty International works on mobilizing people throughout the world to write letters on behalf of people who may have be tortured and or executed for no good reason. The Haiti Solidarity Club formed back in 2010 in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in 2010.. That year they also did a massive drive and raised $20,000 for Haiti. Donnelly and a group of 12 students and another chaperone delivered the relief aid directly. Throughout the years Donnelly has gone 10 times and formed a solid bond with Raya Dole, the director of Los Altos sister school in Haiti. Donnelly states “So we have this long term relationship, it’s not just that we are parachuting in and then leaving and forgetting about it. (17:22) It’s 4 as we say “Solidarity for Life” and it’s about solidarity as a constant means you share the struggle together.
Obviously we’re not living there but while we’re here we are working to not only raise money and resources for our Haitian comrades, but we’re working to raise awareness about the need for a different US Foreign Policy towards Haiti. That’s a connection, like US imperialism in Haiti connects to confronting institutionalized racism at home. There’s a connection and so I view the Haiti Solidarity club and Youth Alliance for Justice as two trenches in the same battlefield..” The newest club, which started unofficially last year, is the Youth Alliance for Justice. The Youth Alliance for Justice started off just as some seniors wanting to get behind a movement sweeping the nation. Donnelly described the events leading up to the march and during the march as a “wave of activism.” The march was intentionally done on December 10th because that was International Human Rights day, a day recognized by the UN and celebrated all over the world.. When describing the events leading up the actual mark, Donnelly noted how the students took the initiative: “That
was one of my high tides of teaching so far. The energy that came together, especially before that first march, where there was just people making signs, voluntarily getting supplies, and just communicating at ten o’clock at night via text and people meeting to spray paint banners. And then all coming together and having such a dignified march of about 200 people.” When reflecting on the march he said it was profound how even young people, here in Los Altos, wanted to stand in solidarity with the movement. The protest was covered by local media from both the school and outside organization, while police were stationed along the way. The students’ starting place was the high school, and they walked a route of approximately two miles, carrying banner and signs. Along the way music was played and the crowd chanted different things such as ‘Hands up, Don’t shoot’ or ‘I can’t breathe’, Signs featured slogans like “excuse the interruption, we are trying to change the world” or “Black lives matter.” Members from the community would join the group as they passed and cars would honk in support as they passed the parade of students walking down the sidewalk. Donnelly said, “We
have to put an end to this kind of abusive power and this kind of institutionalized racism, so it was fantastic. And to see young people lead the march, to give speeches, to play music and poetry. It was definitely a great moment.” When asked if he thought he brought his activist spirit here to Los Altos he said he absolutely did. Donnelly raised a point by saying “I encouraged students that if they wanted to do something constructive that I would be there with them. I think that part of the role as a progressive educator is to encourage activism, not to dictate it but to encourage it. People need a little bit of learning, like here is how you do a press release, here is how you connect with the media, here is how you do a march. I was happy to provide some of that guidance, just like people provided that for me when I was younger.”
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