D.C. Women’s March Attracts Massive, Diverse Crowd
by Lucy Kuchma ‘18
Nearly 100 Sherwood students and teachers drove or metro-ed to the District on Saturday, January 21, for one of the largest protests in the nation’s capital in American history. The following day, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook were peppered with posts of people proudly holding their signs and posters.
“I’m genuinely afraid of some of the claims Trump makes, and the way he tends to treat women. I came to march because I want to stand up for women to help show people that we matter just as much as men do, and we deserve the same respect.” said freshman Sabina Jafri.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans share this concern, and chose to make their voices heard in the monstrous protest. The march brought out roughly 3.3 million people in over 500 locations worldwide. Around 500,000 people met in downtown Washington, which means nearly six times the number of people in a sold-out Redskins Stadium ocked to the National Mall to protest.
“I drove down here from Pittsburgh with my friend and her mom because we wanted to be a part of something epic and memorable while ghting for our much deserved rights.” said 15-year-old Rachel Emmers.
Social Studies teacher Beth Shevitz, who teaches Sherwood’s Women’s Studies course, encouraged her students to take part in the event in order to express their concerns with the actions and words of the new president.
“I feel his presidency is an attack on women because of his previous misogynistic behaviors, so I wanted to march to let him know that he’s not going to mess with me as a woman.” said Shevitz.
“I went to fight against the hateful ideologies that are being normalized because of his presidency. There is such an ignorance about the struggles of women in all socioeconomic classes, religions, ages, sexual orientations, and that needs to stop.” said senior Allie Capone, a student in Shevitz’s first semester Women’s Studies class.
Though advertised as a ‘women’s march,’ protesters held signs and chanted about a wide variety of issues including LGBT rights, gun control, Black Lives Matter, and many more. Addi-tionally, thousands of men were present, protesting for any number of these reasons.
For those who drove, traffic was horrendous going into the city, making the typical hour-long drive take nearly three hours.
The trains, on the other hand, depended greatly on the station. Shady Grove had a huge influx of people aiming to get on as soon as possible to get a seat, so the lines there were easily twice as long as anywhere else. Stations like Grosvenor and Bethesda had a much quicker boarding time early on. However, later in the day, some stations further out on the red line had to shut down from overcrowding and send people to Metro stops closer in towards the city.
“We tried to get on the metro at Shady Grove so that we could for sure get on a train, but we waited for a good two hours before we could even enter the station, let alone board a train. The crowds were insane, but we had to keep reminding ourselves that was what we wanted, right?” said sophomore Caroline Bauk.
Even in the midst of all of the chaos of transport, the march drew many young people within the Sherwood community and far beyond. High school students across the nation made it to DC, and someday they can tell their children that they were there for the Women’s March on Washington.