On Tuesday, February 19th, several South students, parents,and community leaders participated in a news conference in order to address the causes behind the riot of February 14th. The conference was organized by Hussein Samatar, part of this organization and Somali community leader. Junior Halima Abumunye spoke at the conference.

“I just wanted to share how I felt, what happened to me, and share my ideas about what we can do for the Minneapolis district, how we can solve problems…and just come together,” said Abumunye.

“[The conference] was to [make] aware the city that there was some type of racial tension going on in the city, especially around the youth in the city, and especially in our school,” said junior Kowsar Muhammed, another student who spoke at the conference. “Our school is diverse, but yet again it’s socially segregated by race.”

At the conference, people shared their reactions to the fight, as well as discussing the causes behind the fight. Part of the goal was to bring to attention that racial tensions were one of the causes behind the violence.

“There was so much anger built up, and judgements going around, that people were going to do something sooner rather than later,” said Muhammed.

“I don’t feel like what happened was right,” she added. “And that the administration should have talked to everyone about it ahead of time. Another reason that I wanted to speak was because I felt like it was my duty, and it was a situation that had to do with me, so I felt like I should speak upon it for everybody.”

Muhammed said that the conference was successful in that it raised more awareness about the problems.

“We’re all the victim of [the fight],” said Abumunye. “We need to move forward with a more positive mindset.”