Chanting "No ifs, not buts, no education cuts," the students of Thorold Secondary School joined thousand of others across the province to protest cuts to Ontario's education system proposed by the majority Doug Ford Conservative Government.
Student Parker Rees told ThoroldNews, "We don't agree with Ford making cuts to education, especially to the arts programs. We already have limited funding and he wants to cut more. He's eventually going to drain the funding and we'll have no arts programs left."
Hailey Brooker-Sherwood said, "He should stop what he's doing. We're the future of our community and if he thinks he can continue to do what he's doing, we won't stand for it. We're going to stand for what we believe."
"It affects me peronally. I'm an arts person. Cutting arts entirely just ruins my future and other artists as well," Alyssa Peaire added.
Rees went on to say, "We don't agree with changes to OSAP, either. But the main reason we're out here, and wearing black, is to support the teachers. Because he's (Ford) cutting over 5,000 teachers and we don't think that's right."
Removing cell phones from the classroom was not a major concern among the group.
"It bothers some students but it's mostly the arts department cuts that bother these students here today. TSS is basically an arts school and the cuts hurt," asserted Rees.