St. Thomas Students for Justice and Peace club members took their 17th-annual trip to Fort Benning, Ga. last weekend to partake in a nonviolent protest against the School of the Americas.

According to professor Mike Klein, the School of Americas is on the Fort Benning base, and is an institution where soldiers from Latin American countries train for military tactics such as torture and battle.

This annual event, which has been held at Fort Benning for more than 20 years, is sponsored by SOA Watch, a group working to close the SOA.

According to Klein, the event began as a way to commemorate the deaths of six Jesuits, their housekeeper and their daughter in Central America in 1989, all of whom were killed by soldiers from the SOA.

This year, nine St. Thomas students, along with students from St. Kate’s, Macalester, the University of Minnesota and Cretin-Durham High School, took the 24-hour bus ride to help protest.

The program consisted of three smaller events–a rally, a conference and a vigil. Klein described the scene following the vigil as a “wall of crosses and mementos” constructed to commemorate the SOA’s victims.

“There’s something about the real tangible human presence of naming an individual and remembering them to this place that makes it very profoundly emotional and very human,” Klein said.

This was junior Grace Nelson’s first year visiting Fort Benning with the Students for Justice and Peace club, and she said she the vigil was moving.

“I feel that human rights are being violated by other countries, and I know that SOA (contributes) to that,” she said. “The SOA is still open and there are more lives that could be lost by soldiers who have been trained there.”

With all the information she heard about the school, Nelson said she doesn’t see a reason for the SOA to exist.

“I would like to see it shut down because I can’t see the benefit for other people,” Nelsom said.

Sophomore Claire Winzenburg said she attended the event intent on having her voice heard. Wizenburg said she had the opportunity to speak with the Rev. Roy Bourgeois, founder of SOA Watch, during the trip. She said admired the strength of people who spoke at the event.

“I’m not going to be silent about the atrocities this institution is bringing unto the world,” Winzenburg said. “People within this country know what (the SOA is) doing and are not OK with it.”

Klein said because of the benefits for both parties, he plans on continuing to send students to the protest.

“It’s about finding their voice, about learning how to speak out against injustice, and learning to speak in concert with others as something larger than itself,” he said.

Nick Cocchiarella can be reached at cocc7813@stthomas.edu.