Buttons.jpeg

Pictured here, a button worn by a student at Clearview Regional High School on Thursday, June 11, 2015 during a student sit-in, in protest of of school administration taking down a "police brutality" display project recently made by a humanitarian studies class. (Submitted Photo)

(Submitted Photo)

HARRISON TWP. -- Passionate students from Clearview Regional High School staged a sit-in on Thursday, protesting what they believed was a harsh and unfair reaction by many law enforcement officials on social media about a school project students posted on a wall in the high school, which included the words "police brutality."

Ameira Brown, 17, and a junior at Clearview Regional High School, was part of a humanitarian studies class that made a wall display earlier this week portraying a paper cutout silhouette of a person with raised hands and posters stating: "Police Brutality" and "Hands up! Don't shoot!"

She was also one of the organizers of the sit-in.

Roughly 120 students took to the lobby of the school to form a silent protest and were reportedly accompanied by teachers and a guidance counselor. The group sought to show the importance of freedom of expression -- especially about police and community relations.

Brown, of Sewell, was troubled that the superintendent of her school, John Horchak, and other school administrative members did not come forward to say that the project had been approved by the school's administration more than a month in advance.

After a photograph of the display had surfaced on social media, a backlash ensued -- primarily from members of local law enforcement agencies and Police Benevolent Association Local 122 -- who condemned the piece, believing it portrayed law enforcement in a negative light.

Pictured here, a poster that was included in the display project made by students at Clearview Regional High School that caused controversy within the law enforcement community. On Thursday, June 11, 2015 students staged a sit-in, in protest of school administration taking down a "police brutality" display project recently made by a humanitarian studies class. (Submitted Photo)

But Brown said people missed the entire meaning and were unable to see the other posters that had messages demonstrating the importance of community policing and the dangers that law enforcement experience on the job.

"It wasn't meant to slander police," Brown said, her voice trembling. "We were showing that there is police brutality, and the more people that know the reality, the more people that can make a change ... But what really got lost in our message is that (police) are the protectors."

The display, Brown said, sought to coalesce two ideas about law enforcement -- that police are society's valiant protectors, yet not free from moral failings or exempt from self-reflection and change -- concepts that she noted should not be mutually exclusive.

Pictured here, a poster that was included in the display project made by students at Clearview Regional High School that caused controversy within the law enforcement community. On Thursday, June 11, 2015 students staged a sit-in, in protest of school administration taking down a "police brutality" display project recently made by a humanitarian studies class. (Submitted Photo)

She added: "Police want to live, they are human, they want to go home to their families, they have emotions. But we were saying, if you know 'him' things can be all right."

Brown's uncle is also a police officer.

According to Clearview students, school administrators have ordered students to take all posters down related to the school's "awareness campaign" -- which include subjects like feminism and clean drinking water.

"A lot of students feel that the administration is not standing by its students or our teacher and are yet again blatantly ignoring issues such as feminism and police brutality," a Clearview high school senior wrote by email.

Jennifer Satterfield is the humanitarian studies teacher in charge of the class.

And many students and parents spoke on Satterfield's behalf, saying they were proud of her.

"She is amazing," Brown said. "She has a different way of teaching, where she'll give you work, but it doesn't even seem like work."

She added: "She made sure we were balanced and got all sides. We'd come up with something and she'd say, 'OK, now how can we look at it from the other side."

Melody Randle, of Mullica Hill, who has a daughter at Clearview, said she commended Satterfield for "challenging the students to talk about real life issues that are currently going on in the country."

She hoped Horchak publicly said the students did not do anything wrong.

"If they did something wrong, then discipline them, but it is wrong to make it seem like they did," Randle said.

Brown felt the school administration made it seem like she and her classmates broke into the school and acted rebelliously in putting up the display.

Horchak said on Wednesday that he hadn't known too much about the wall display, but that once it was brought to Principal Keith Brook's attention, "it was taken down immediately."

According to Brown, Brook told students that the display initially had to be taken down because it was causing a disturbance.

Horchak did not respond to multiple calls for comment on Thursday.

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Spencer Kent may be reached at skent@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerMKent. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook.