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Students march on City Hall

About 300 students from several Philadelphia high schools staged a peaceful march on City Hall at lunchtime, seeking more money to support the public schools.

About 300 students from several city high schools, chanting "Save our schools,"  staged a march on City Hall at lunchtime Thursday, joining the pressure on city politicians to find more funding for the Philadelphia School District.

"We have a voice too, and we want to be heard," said Tenerica Calloway, a junior at Franklin Learning Center,  as the group massed outside the northeast corner of City Hall and waved homemade signs at passing cars. "We know money is being taken from the schools, and they're threatening art programs, music programs, extracurricular activities, everything."

"We're going to walk into school one day and see nobody but ourselves," said her classmate, Roneka Jones.

Other schools represented in the march included Ben Franklin High School, CAPA, SLA and Masterman, according to some of the marchers.

About 30 uniformed and Civil Affairs police officers looked on and the students never attempted to enter City Hall. Afer half an hour on the sidewalk outside City Hall, the group marched north on Broad Street.

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