On Feb. 5, approximately 200 students at Fremont and Homestead High School in Sunnyvale and Cupertino respectively walked out of class Wednesday at noon in protest of the Trump administration’s policy stances on immigration and the deportation of undocumented people.
Students draped their bodies with flags of various Latin American countries, blared music, and lofted handmade signs with protest slogans ranging from “Don’t deport my family,” “Stand up fight back,” to “My parents fought for my future, now I’m fighting for theirs.”
At Homestead High School, students began congregating at a nearby McDonald’s at around 11:50 a.m., waiting for about 10 minutes for any stragglers before beginning the march. At Fremont High School, students were seen leaving the school and marching west down West Fremont Avenue at 12:10 p.m.
Students reported that details about the protests began circulating on Instagram around Friday, Jan. 31. This information reached student marchers at different times throughout the week, and even while the protest was already in progress.
Daphne Torres, 14, a freshman at Homestead High School, got information for the protest through shared posts from her friends on Instagram.
“I think it was (up) since Friday… and then they barely announced it this week,” Torres said.
Torres said she joined the march to stand in solidarity with the Latino community in response to President Trump’s new policies and executive orders, which threaten Latino immigrants living in the United States.
“I just want to let Hispanics know they’re not alone and to make people know that no one is illegal on stolen land,” Torres said. “We just hope to target the right audience and just let people know that we have a right to be here; I know what you’re (Trump is) doing is not right. Like, being racist.”
Torres emphasized that the nature of the protest was nonviolent and meant only to bring awareness to immigrant rights in the U.S.
“It was going to be a friendly protest, nothing to make a mess or anything, just let people know we have rights and we are here to work, study and to make a career. We have a right to be here,” Torres said.
After hearing about the protest plans in class, Ricky Francis, 15, sophomore at Fremont High School, decided to join out of support for his immigrant mother.
“My mom is a good person,” Francis said. “She doesn’t deserve to get deported because some dude in office says that all these people are bad. It’s like it was Hitler saying, ‘Oh, the Jews were bad,’ just because they’re Jewish.”
Francis hopes the protest will show people a different side of the Trump presidency and raise awareness about the impact of his policy actions. He hopes this march will “(change) people’s minds (and) tell people ‘Hey, just because he was supposedly going to lower gas prices and grocery prices doesn’t mean he’s a good person.’”
Marching north up Sunnyvale-Saratoga Road, the converged student groups from both schools passed by Allstate Insurance at the intersection of West Remington Drive, drawing out customer service representatives Rhiannon Pierson, 46, and Suzanne Flores, 65, clapping and cheering.
“I’m so proud of our young protestors,” Pierson said. “I just love it. It’s … our next generation. It’s what we need.”
Flores expressed her support for the students and said she was glad to see them taking action for their beliefs, themselves and their loved ones.
“I wish we could go out there. The students are walking out, from all the schools, from what I know,” Flores said. “They understand their ancestry now. Before, they didn’t give two s—s, now they do.”
After an afternoon of marching, the remaining group of student protesters headed back to school, as many other students who didn’t participate still showed their support for the demonstration from the sidelines.
“I think I’m fine with it (the protests), I also don’t agree with the new laws happening because I also come from an immigrant family and I feel really bad for all the families that have been deported,” said Jeanne Mae Catubia, 15, student at Fremont High School. “I really hope that at least Trump reconsiders the new laws he has added against the (Hispanic) immigrants.”
