Sydney school students are following on from their Melbourne and Adelaide counterparts and will leave school to take part in pro-Palestine rallies this afternoon.
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00:00 There is expected to be some disruption around Sydney's CBD this lunchtime with students
00:06 planning to protest in support of Palestinians.
00:10 The group Students for Palestine has organised this protest for 1.30 outside Sydney's Town
00:16 Hall and they're encouraging students to walk out at lunchtime or skip school entirely today
00:22 in order to demand an end to the war and to protest the rising death toll in Gaza.
00:27 And this follows similar protests that were held in Melbourne and Adelaide yesterday where
00:31 hundreds of students attended in support for Palestinians.
00:36 In Melbourne they marched from Flinders Street Station to Melbourne Central while in Adelaide
00:41 they gathered on the steps of Parliament.
00:43 In New South Wales the Premier and Education Minister have this week been calling on students
00:48 not to attend this protest saying that if children want to change the world they need
00:53 to get an education.
00:55 And the government also says that teachers should not be supporting this student action
00:59 and that they're discouraged from discussing politics inside the classroom.
01:04 Earlier this morning the Education Minister Prukar spoke to ABC News and she said that
01:10 school is compulsory and that students are not allowed to skip class today.
01:14 Take a listen.
01:15 There won't be excuses for children that attend this rally instead of being in class.
01:24 They will obviously be marked as absent.
01:28 There'll be other repercussions for students that are supposed to be in class today.
01:35 In a statement the Department of Education says that today is a school day and that children
01:40 are expected to attend unless they have a legitimate reason not to.
01:45 And we are also expecting a police presence at this protest.
01:48 New South Wales Police say they are aware of this planned action and will be monitoring
01:52 the situation accordingly.
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