Knock LA

On Friday, February 6, students from several high schools throughout Orange and LA Counties collaborated. Together, they organized walkouts on their respective campuses in protest of last month’s civilian murders as well as the ongoing, immoderate violence by ICE in Minnesota. Thousands of students across OCSA, Fullerton Union High School, Hart High School (Santa Clarita), Cerritos High School, Whitney High School (Cerritos), Artesia High School (Lakewood), and more, led individual, campus-wide walkouts for one unified cause – abolishing ICE. Several local middle schools also took part in the cross-school protests.

“One day, you’ll look around, notice who built your roads, who cleaned your homes, who picked your food, who kept your cities alive, and you’ll want us back. You call this safety, you call this protection, but the danger was never us. The danger was the hate you chose instead of the truth,” said Visual Arts Conservatory senior, Pilar Rivera. She shared these words as part of an original poem at an ICE protest earlier this month on her high school campus, Orange County School of the Arts (OCSA) in Santa Ana. She spoke of her escalating fears for her people and family, calling for justice, while recentering the notion that immigrants remain the true and unsung architects of our country. 

Many community members, including some parents and school administrators, questioned the students’ true motivations for the walkouts. However, the tone across the events, revealed through passionately delivered student speeches and spoken word poetry, reflected the deep emotions felt by the young protesters. Many of the students have been directly affected by ICE detentions, and those that haven’t still feel the stress of seeing video footage of people being ambushed and violently detained, sometimes just steps from the front of their schools.

OCSA Junior Sophia Zavala had this searing response: “Adults forget that we are the generation who attended ‘Zoom School’ while collectively battling a global pandemic, can execute school shooting lockdown protocol with our eyes closed, and have prepared final texts on the ready to send our families in case we are caught in one. We navigate the resurgence of campus and community racism after George Floyd’s murder, all while studying for AP exams, SATs, attending extracurriculars, meeting volunteer quotas, and writing killer college application essays. Did they think we would just look away when ICE came for our friends and neighbors?”

The students are collectively angry. Despite some adults expecting an immature response,  they channeled their anger and frustration into the meticulous planning of their individual protests. Organizers of the OCSA campus walkout strategically designed their route to end at the steps of the Ronald Reagan Santa Ana Federal Building, the same location where, at a protest on January 9, 2026, 21 year old Kaden Rummler, lost the vision in his left eye after federal agents struck him in the face, firing a projectile at him from point blank range. Additionally significant, ICE recently secured office space in the same building as part of its rapid expansion plan across the country. The new Santa Ana location represents one of over 150 leased sites nationwide, including an Irvine location, recently acquired by the agency. 

The planning committees also focused on sign making, creating and selling event shirts with profits going to local charities supporting families of detainees, and coordinating community outreach. Arabella Elmer of Hart High School in Santa Clarita helped organize her school’s walkout, sharing, “Organizing was a detailed process, consisting of contacting administrators, hosting poster making activities, and constantly updating plans through our walkout social media account.” 

Safety was also a top priority of organizers, especially after a video of an adult MAGA sympathizer assaulting high school students participating in an “ICE OUT” walkout in Texas went viral just days before the scheduled walkouts in Orange County and Los Angeles County. Students worked closely with school security teams to ensure everyone’s safety. They carried whistles as they walked and some schools secured police escorts. Parents also stationed themselves along the walkout routes to help maintain order..  Hundreds of students at each campus participated in the protests, with Fullerton Union High School reporting more than 700 students joining in their walkout. Overall, schools involved in the  February 6 collaborative high school walkouts across Southern California reported safe and successful events that served to peacefully yet passionately demonstrate that young people deeply care about these horrors affecting their communities. Jade Cimino of El Camino High reminded the adults of their community, “We are aware, informed and willing to stand up for what we believe is right.”