A different kind of bell sounded on Friday at many Southern California campuses — a call that beckoned students to walk out of school instead of into their next class as thousands joined protests in a national tide of demonstrations against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Across many school districts — from Long Beach to Los Angeles to Pasadena — throngs of students skipped school or poured out of classrooms and cafeterias, joining cafe owners who had shut down for the day, parents who took time off from work to rally, and activists who have been marching for months. Walkouts — organized and sporadic — also took place at UCLA, USC and Cal State L.A.
For many students, the immigration raids have been personal, affecting family or friends who are undocumented. They have felt fear in their neighborhoods since mass detentions began in June — and were moved to act after recent violence in Minneapolis. Others said they were motivated to take classroom civics lessons to the streets.
“There are times when protesting is more necessary than going to the classroom,” said Hart LippSmith, a junior from Sequoyah School in Pasadena, who led protesters in downtown Los Angeles with chants of “ICE out of L.A.,” while holding a megaphone.
Los Angeles public schools have moved to protect students and families, organizing safe passage routes to supervise travel to and from school. Educators have described a deep “climate of distress” at campuses over immigration enforcement. Enrollment has dropped, in part fueled by fears of raids and deportations.
School leaders and teachers had braced themselves for possible widespread disruptions.
In a letter to parents, Los Angeles Unified Supt. Alberto Carvalho said his district “supports the rights of our students” to protest but cautioned that “the safest place for students is at school.” District attendance data showed that 80% of LAUSD students showed up for classes Friday, compared with 90% the last five days.
Long Beach
More than a hundred students walked out of Cabrillo High School carrying signs and flags for Mexico and Guatemala. Staff members watched from the doorway while two white school security SUVs idled nearby.
An alum now at Long Beach City College led the march, joined by adults from Safe Passage and other community groups. They walked for more than 2.5 hours to the Long Beach Civic Center, chanting as cars honked in support.
“The duty of youth is to challenge corruption,” read one student’s sign.
Junior Ana Rivera said she knew of teachers and coaches who supported the decision to leave school to protest. The issue affected her, she said, because she moved to Mexico with her father in 2011 after he was deported. Rivera returned to Long Beach in 2016.
“ICE has always been here,” she said. “It’s just getting worse.”
Roughly 3,000 high school and middle school students from several schools protested against ICE, according to the district, and about 600 converged outside of the Long Beach Civic Center.
“We recognize that recent events and national conversations around immigration enforcement are deeply personal and causing fear, uncertainty, and emotional distress for many in our community,” a district spokesperson said in a statement. “We stand in solidarity with our immigrant students and families and remain unwavering in our commitment to protecting every student’s dignity, safety, and right to learn.”
Lucia Tellez, a Woodrow Wilson High School sophomore, was among those at the rally. “I don’t want to see any aggression,” said Tellez, 15. “Just seeing all the stories breaks my heart.”
Itzel, whose parents and older brothers are undocumented, walked 1.5 hours from Wilson High School to Long Beach Civic Center. Her group left school at 11 a.m.
“It feels empowering to be able to speak up,” she said, requesting that her last name be withheld because of her family’s immigration status.
Los Angeles
In Los Angeles, students were drawn to a rally at Gloria Molina Grand Park in downtown, walking or taking the bus from nearby schools.
Matthew Landa, a sophomore at Larchmont Charter High School, said many left his campus and came downtown via bus.
“We want a change to happen, that’s why we came out here to protest,” he said.
Teresa Albores, a seventh-grader from Nightingale Middle School, was among those who left school. She joined an uncle of one of her friends at the march.
It’s “not right,” Albores said of the immigration raids that have taken place across the U.S.
LippSmith of the Sequoyah School in Pasadena described his youthful activism in broader terms.
“We are the grandchildren of the protesters. We are the grandchildren of the oppressed,” he said. “And we’re inheriting that oppression and that responsibility to keep this going.”
LAUSD board member Tanya Ortiz Franklin, whose district includes Watts, Gardena and San Pedro, said there were walkouts at several schools in the area she represents. They included John C. Fremont High School, where she said roughly 150 students left midday.
“They feel empowered,” Franklin said. She said students were “in fear of being kidnapped, separated from their families. And this kind of stress is completely inappropriate from our government officials who are too afraid to show their faces in a lot of respects.”
Although Franklin did not encourage students to leave classes, she said schools did not “close the gate” to prevent walkouts. She suggested that students “lift their voices in a safe way on campus.”
“We hope adults are in charge of people under 18, supervising them for those who walked out.”
College activism
At UCLA, hundreds of students gathered Friday afternoon at the Bruin Bear statue for an “ICE out” rally, part of a series of actions at the campus over the last few weeks, including a Thursday campus vigil for Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two U.S. citizens whose deaths in shootings by federal agents in Minnesota have sparked anger nationally.
Some UCLA faculty members also joined the Los Angeles downtown rally, and members of the California Faculty Assn., the union that represents professors across the Cal State system, said they had planned to protest.
UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk and Carvalho, the LAUSD superintendent, were scheduled to speak together Friday about college and K-12 partnerships at Horace Mann UCLA Community School near South L.A. But they postponed the event “in light of the anticipated national shutdown and the potential for student walkouts,” an LAUSD statement said.
More walkouts planned
Several Los Angeles-area high schools, including those in the San Fernando Valley, have advertised most rallies on Feb. 6.
“We will be walking out from the front of the school & we will be walking to the Ted Green Park!!” said an Instagram post promoting a walkout that day at Pomona High School. “We are protesting against ICE & what they are doing to our community. Bring flags, posters, jerseys, etc! Represent your culture! Our community!!”
This story originally appeared on LA Times
