Hundreds of high school students left campuses across Long Beach and marched Downtown Friday as part of a larger wave of walkouts protesting President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
In the morning, about 100 students from Poly circled City Hall before heading to the Pike Outlets. In the afternoon, another group of about 300 students from Jordan and Lakewood high schools reached Downtown and rallied in Lincoln Park. Students from Wilson, Millikan, Cabrillo and Franklin Middle School also participated in demonstrations, according to the Long Beach Unified School District. An early estimate from the district said there were about 500 students total.
The protests came days after students at schools across Los Angeles staged their own walkout.
As they marched through Downtown, many of the Long Beach students said they felt obligated to stand up for relatives, family and friends who could be detained, deported or denigrated by the new administration.
“I’m doing this for my parents,” said Mildred, a 17-year-old junior who said her father was deported after a traffic stop when she was a baby.
Nereyda, who asked to be identified by only her first name because one of her parents does not have legal status, said there’s fear and anger about Trump’s promise of mass deportations and the dehumanizing he uses to describe immigrants.
“We’re all people. We’re all humans,” she said, holding a sign that said, “Nobody is illegal on stolen land.”
Several Poly students said staff initially tried to stop them from leaving campus, but they persisted and were able to walk out.
Some staff members followed along, they said, to make sure students were safe.
“As a district, we respect and support students’ rights to express themselves through peaceful demonstrations,” the LBUSD said in an emailed statement. “At the same time, we strongly encourage students to remain on campus, where they can engage in meaningful discussions and learning opportunities in a safe and structured environment.”
Students said they planned to head back to campus after the march.
Later in the day, the LBUSD sent a message to parents sharing immigration resources and saying it “stands in Solidarity with our immigrant students and families. Every student belongs here, and our schools are safe spaces, free from outside enforcement agencies.”
The Trump administration recently did away with guidance that directed immigration agencies not to arrest people at sensitive locations like schools and churches.
If immigration agents do show up at any Long Beach campuses, staff are supposed to send them to the school administrator’s office, according to the LBUSD. The district does not gather any information about the immigration status of students or their families, and it has a policy against employees sharing any details about students unless instructed by their general counsel’s office, LBUSD spokesperson Elvia Cano said.