MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Hundreds of people, including many high school students, are rallying in Minneapolis in support of protesters arrested in December at the Mall of America.

Friday's rally at a south-side park also included protests against recent high-profile confrontations between police and citizens, including the Freddie Gray case in Baltimore.

The group Black Lives Matter had encouraged students to leave school, and some from Southwest and Washburn high schools did. They staged a die-in that briefly stopped traffic on a street near Martin Luther King Park.

Demonstrators also staged a protest earlier Friday at an Edina courthouse where a hearing was held for several defendants charged in the Mall of America protest. The judge in the case declined a request to put a gag order on the defendants.

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