Chad Kemp (12)

“No Trump!

No KKK!

No Fascist USA!”

This was the chant during a warm afternoon, when many hundreds of Santiago students assembled on the quad. They carried with them flags of other countries, including Latin American ones like Mexico and Guatemala, and homemade posters protesting against ICE and the Trump Administration; phrases like “No Human Is Illegal” and “Melt ICE” are prevalent examples.

At around 2:00 p.m., the massive line of students marched out the front gate, chanting loudly as passing vehicles honked in support. They marched down Rimpau Avenue, many splitting off to return to school; the rest continued all the way to Magnolia, where they camped and chanted for all to see. Some even climbed atop the traffic lights, waving the flags of their family’s country.

This was the scene last Monday. Well over a thousand Sharks participated in the protest, following the procedure laid out by an Instagram account listed as “shs_iceout”. The account features posts detailing the walkout plans, alongside a date push from the prior Friday, January 30th, to Monday, February 2nd.

In addition, it explicitly outlines the rules that participating students must follow, such as remaining peaceful and aware of their surroundings while avoiding escalation or blocking traffic.

At the scene, the students were clear about their motivations.

“I walk out today in support of my family,” said Sam Mendoza, a senior present at the event who helped lead chants with a megaphone, when inquired about her reasons for attending. “My mother, who came to this country for me, for her rights, for my family’s rights, for my neighbor’s rights, to be here in this country and to keep this country beautiful as it was before this administration.”

Some students have reported that their families’ lives have been personally affected by the recent ICE raids. Mendoza continues with this, alleging that the recent ICE operations created fear among her family, preventing them from going out for fear of being detained.

Another senior, Andrew Martinez, tells a similar story when inquired about the effect ICE has had on him and his family’s personal lives.

“Yes, 100%. I’ve had family get harassed by officers. I’ve had… a person in my family [taken]. That was horrible – and just seeing innocent people get taken, the little kids, all of that online, it’s horrible.”

Not all students present were personally affected by ICE; many participated for a broader purpose.

“It has not [affected me], but it always can, so it’s always good to be proactive,” said junior Jayden Stone. “And even if it doesn’t affect you, it’s always good to fight for what’s right.”

Santiago is not the first school in the area to do a walkout. Riverside Poly students held their own walkout on the prior Thursday, as did schools in Bakersfield the day after. The purpose of these protests is the same across all of them: they follow weeks of national headlines surrounding enforcement activity.

Context for the walkout

During Donald Trump’s second term as U.S. President, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement federal law enforcement agency has significantly increased the frequency of its crackdowns.

USAFacts cites that, since January of 2025, over 70,000 people have been detained and placed in detention centers, an over 70% increase from the previous year and within an equal period. In addition, they reported that at least 32 people have died within ICE custody, frequently from medical issues, neglect, and worsening conditions, as reported by this source from the Guardian.

More polarizing than this, however, are the shootings of 37-year-old Renee Good and Alex Pretti by ICE officers in Minneapolis, reported by ABC News in these timelines. Good was an award-winning poet and mother of 3, and Pretti was an ICU nurse at a VA (Veterans’ Affairs) hospital – both were shot and killed by federal agents during unrelated operations.

Santiago students, such as Mendoza, have referred to these two incidents when explaining what immediately motivated them to join the walkout. Apart from police regulation to make sure students respected traffic laws – and a car accident next to the crowd on Mangular, resulting in only minor injuries to its teenage inhabitants – the protest remained peaceful overall.

Opposite to the students’ means of protest, many others across the US have also taken physical action against them. The Department of Homeland Security, its parent organization, displayed results showing increases in attacks and threats against its officers in the thousands due to “an environment that encourages rampant assaults on law enforcement.”

To avoid contributing to these statistics – an increase in almost yearly assaults from 19 to 275 and yearly vehicular attacks from 2 to 66 – the organizers and many students at the scene regulated themselves and prevented serious crimes against others, like assault.

In Post

The next day, other students who had participated in the protest reflected on their involvement without regret. Sofia Caravella, a senior and the student depicted on the cover photo with a microphone, is a prime example.

“I would rather take a detention, a suspension, a Saturday school – I don’t care – over being quiet and allowing more people to die, to be raped, to be literally taken out of their homes and stripped away from their families. Like, no consequence is bigger than what these people have been facing from the tyranny of ICE, and it’s just been heartbreaking to hear about.”

Since the students began walking at 2 pm, in the middle of fifth period, consequences were a prevalent concern: truancies, namely Saturday schools, could be issued to students who didn’t call ahead to clear their absences.

There was also an option for teachers to assign important tasks that could only be done during that time, but truancy was ultimately a more pressing concern for many students.

Despite this, students would still be able to participate if they, again, contacted the office ahead of time – either through their parents or by their own means if the student is an adult and can sign themselves out. This is largely because of the 1969 Tinker v. Des Moines case, in which students wore black armbands in protest of the Vietnam War and were warned by their principal of possible suspension.

The case reached the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the students: schools may not reasonably deny students’ First Amendment rights to protest unless the protest disrupts the learning environment. Today, this provides added protection for students during protests.

Closing

As polarization and the wedge between the American people continue to grow, this walkout has given students here at Santiago hope for the future.

“For me, it meant a great deal,” said senior Matthew Depew. “I’ve never felt truly connected with this community, but yesterday proved to me wrong, that this community was something bigger and bolder than I could have ever imagined when we could, in thousands, group together and fight against a cause that I’m very passionate about.”

In addition, the shs_iceout Instagram account, run by juniors Aryanna Gutierrez, Melanie Balderas, and Audrey Perez, shared their thoughts on it in the days that followed.

Whether the event is perceived as the legitimate voice of students who are discontent or as an opportunity for those indifferent to the matter to skip school, it remains one of the largest student-run events in the history of Santiago High. These are additional photos of the protest, taken by senior Kian Garcia on behalf of our editor-in-chief.