Over 1,000 Palo Alto High School students walked out of class during sixth period on Friday at noon, marching in protest of the Trump administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Students gathered at the Performing Arts Center and marched towards the intersection of El Camino Real and Embarcadero Rd., then the protesters spread out to the edge of Town & Country Village, while others marched up El Camino on the Paly side of the road.
Student protesters stood on the streets holding up signs and cheering as a cacophony of cars went by with some honking their horns in support.
According to a note sent out to the parent community by Principal Brent Kline, teachers were encouraged not to attend, promote or impede the student-led protest. However, administrators and campus security staff were still present at the walkout to ensure student safety and maintain order, like guiding students away from traffic and acting as crossing guards.
According to California Senate Bill No. 955, middle or high school students engaged in a civic or political event may be excused for one school day’s absence provided that the student’s family notifies the school ahead of the absence.
According to Paly junior Brian Miller, one of the student organizers, the walkout welcomed anyone on campus who wanted change. Miller helped organize the event by sending out a mass email to the student body on Wednesday calling for students to walkout and protest against ICE.
“The main goal was to bring the Palo Alto community together so that we can make a change happen and to meet a big issue,” Miller said. “I felt like there’s no better time than the present to make a change. Like I’ve been saying before, I sound like a broken record, but change happens in steps.”
Conversely, Miller said he found the abundance of vulgar language used by a few students during the walkout to be disappointing, and he also objected to the blocking of traffic.
“Some things that disappointed me were some vulgar posters,” Miller said. “I saw some people obstructing traffic [by] running between cars, and that was never the message. That was never the intention, and I told people that from day one.”
Miller said he was very happy with the protest turnout.
“Overall, I’m very proud of the power of community. Everyone did great. Everyone brought energy and that’s number one.”
Junior Kit Wendling, another self-identified organizer of the walkout, said that what brought her out was what she called injustice happening in Minnesota and across America.
“We’ve all seen the murder of Renee Good and that ICU nurse [Alex Pretti], but there are so many more murders in broad daylight,” Wendling said. “It’s completely unfair that ICE agents can just murder people in broad daylight and have no repercussions; a lot of people here agree with that.”
Castilleja senior Katrina Huang, one of the organizers from her school, said that she and her peers were inspired to protest after hearing about the national movement across the United States from a friend. The idea gained traction in their grade group chat and later gained traction in the all-girls Castellejah School overall.
“Castilleja is all about women learning and women leading,” Huang said. “We’re hoping to let people know that this is a real issue, this is a real movement. If not us, then who? This is something important, and it’s important for the youth to get out here, and it’s important for the youth to get involved.”
Students were not the only protesters at the scene; numerous adults were also seen holding up signs and cheering along with students.
John Cassidy was one such adult who said that he wanted to impeach President Donald Trump and block ICE from operating any further.
“I hope to return democracy to the United States of America, hope to get Donald Trump impeached, and I hope to get ICE defunded and disbanded,” Cassidy said.
Climate activist Matt Schlegel, who was playing a guitar at the Town and Country intersection, said he wanted to show support for the student walkout.
“This is a special moment right now because so many people feel so strongly about what’s going on in our country, and they want to show some solidarity with the people who are victimized in this country, so it’s just exhilarating to me,” Schlegel said. “They [students] are doing a great job by themselves.”
A Paly freshman who preferred to stay anonymous complained about the current deportations of people from the United States:
“The deportations they were doing already have a lot of ethical problems. They’ve been harming a lot of citizens, those who are legally here in the U.S., people who already have a visa. It’s all just chaos right now. It really needs to stop.”
After a short stay at the intersection at Town and Country, the protesters decided to split up, with one group heading up El Camino on the Paly side while another group stayed at the intersection.
One student who headed up El Camino, Paly junior Brennan, said he was protesting against ICE’s actions across the country with deportations.
“[I am] protesting against ICE, [and] the state-sanctioned executions in our streets are just not okay,” Brennan said. “They need to be stopped. They [ICE] are a terrorist organization funded by the United States government.”
Paly senior Nina, who was headed down El Camino Real, said she was protesting against ICE and that it was her duty as an American citizen to stand up for those impacted by ICE.
“My mom comes from Serbia, and in Serbia, student protests are the biggest way that change comes, if at all,” Nina said. “I’m hoping that if student protests become more common in America, maybe the same thing will happen here.”
Paly was not the only school at the protest. Students from Palo Alto Middle College High School, Castilleja School, and Greene Middle School attended the walkout. Students from Henry M. Gunn High School also protested near their own school, but were not a part of the group at Paly.
Brennan summed up his personal motivation behind the protest as speaking up for undocumented immigrants.
“No one should be considered illegal, no matter the context,” Brennan said. “No human is illegal.”
Editors’ note: Additional reporting by Benji Sandel.