Student Reactions to Occupy Movements

The Occupy movement has been spawning protests in cities and towns across this country.

In Vermont, Occupy Burlington was the largest in the state and a number of students attended from Lyndon State College.



Seniors, Joshua Cook and Jen Nolan, have been the both Occupy Burlington and Occupy Boston. They have seen the surprise concert by Gogol Bordello preformed live at Occupy Burlington. They have pitched tents, listened to rallies, and have been increasingly involved with the movements.

Gogol Bortello preforming "Start Wearing Purple"

Questions of police brutality have been raised as viral videos have surfaced of police unneccarily using pepper spray on students.

“If we could voice our opinions freely why are we being silenced by police?”, says Nolan.

Two other students from LSC have been vocal, but have not yet participated in any organized protests.
Isaac Tanney is a senior at Lyndon State studying Music Business. Tanney believes that it’s good to have police officers on the scene in a big crowd just in case something gets out of hand.

Junior, Sarah Bruno doesn’t think a Occupy Lyndon State College is possible. “It’s not possible on such a small campus,” Bruno reiterated.

Tanney believes that with the right lead and energetic force to the project, something like Occupy Burlington or Boston could happen here.

All in all the students seemed to have a cohesive thought that having an Occupy Lyndon State would be a good cause which with take a lot of passion and drive to push forward. Then again who knows, Lyndon doesn't want to be the next news story on police officers mistakenly shooting rubber bullets or being too frivolous with their pepper spray.