The Model Who Convinced 167 Classmates and 4 Teachers to Join Ferguson Protest

NEW YORK—Leading hundreds of angry teens in protest of the deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of white police officers on Monday was a small collective of highly motivated high school students.

Model, actress, student body president, and Ferguson protester Shana Buckstad, 17, on the ferry leaving Governors Island to Manhattan, New York, on Dec. 3, 2014. Samira Bouaou/Epoch Times

NEW YORK—Leading hundreds of angry teens in protest of the deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of white police officers on Monday was a small collective of highly motivated high school students.

Shana Buckstad, 17, was part of the group. She alone convinced 167 students and four teachers in her school to walk out.

The feat earned her a warning Monday from the principal of her school on Governors Island, for possible suspension.

“You’re the one enforcing it in the school and putting our students in danger,” Shana said she was told. When she got the news, she panicked.

Shana is an overachiever who wakes up at 4:30 a.m. She transferred to New York Harbor School in her junior year to learn marine biology.

She put on a brave face at school where she is student body president, but when she got to her home in Jackson Heights, Queens, she let her anxiety show.

Model, actress, student body president, and Ferguson protester Shana Buckstad, 17, in front of her school the New York Harbor School on Governors Island, New York, on Dec. 3, 2014. Samira Bouaou/Epoch Times