Occupy Texas State Protestors Rally At The Hays County Courthouse
Photo by Lori Alaniz
An Occupy Texas State movement started to take shape Thursday afternoon, when about 30 people, mostly students, rallied outside the Hays County Courthouse to show solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Joshua Harvey, 24, a junior at the university who organized the march, said the group was largely focused on issues that concern students, such as debt, high tuition rates and the lack of available jobs for recent graduates.
Facing the courthouse, the crowd chanted in unison that corporations have a “held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right. They have turned education into a business while reducing our national marketability to attract companies which could offer us jobs.”
Harvey said that the group is planning future marches and hopes to have at least one person holding a sign in protest on the university’s Quad at all hours.
The group had one detractor, a man with a sign that read “Rebels without a clue,” who was engaging a handful of students in debate.
San Marcos resident Anne Halsey, 37, had joined the students with her three children. Sadie, 6, held a sign that read “Books not bonuses.” Halsey’s sign asked “Who stole my house?”
Her home has depreciated 66 percent in value in three years, she said. “That’s criminal.”
Marching around the courthouse, protesters chanted “We are the 99 percent” and “End corporate greed,” before heading back to campus.
Photo by Lindsey Huckaby
Texas State: Occupied 