At 8:45 this Tuesday morning, approximately 350 East students left their classrooms to protest outside against the budget cuts in New Jersey schools.

Organized through Facebook, the silent statewide protest extended to a number of the 400,000 public schools in New Jersey, all upset over last week’s election outcome, which voted against the budget.

According to East teacher Mr. John Locke, “What has happened is that Governor [Chris] Christie proposed legislature … to take away money from the state. He wants to freeze teacher salaries for a year.”

Students, fearing a decline in education, considered their teacher’s difficulties. Locke also mentioned that teachers may be forced to pay part of their salaries to a state that they may or may not belong to or be willing to support.

Teachers, unfortunately, were unable to fight for their cause during Tuesday morning’s protest, as they are under contract to remain in the building. Yet, students showed their support on East’s front lawn: some students even continued the protest by remaining in the auditorium for the remainder of the day.