April 10, 2026
About 500 students from San Lorenzo high schools walked out of classes at mid-morning on Jan. 28 and converged on the intersection of Lewelling Boulevard and Hesperian Avenue to protest federal actions by agents of U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE).
Students from nearby San Lorenzo High and East Bay Arts arrived first at the major intersection, as school and district administrators watched and offered guidance to help ensure their safety. The protestors carried signs and shouted slogans in support of immigrant rights and denouncing ICE. Federal agents had recently killed two people in Minneapolis who were peacefully advocating for immigrants.
Many passing motorists honked and waved as they drove by, prompting cheers and shouts from the students, who had announced a Walmart parking lot as their meeting place.
Within an hour, the students were joined by hundreds more who walked from Arroyo High, about 1.1 miles away, as well as from Royal Sunset High, along with additional students from Chabot College, Kipp King Collegiate High School, Castro Valley High School and Mt. Eden High School in Hayward. They filled the sidewalks and medians.
Reporters and camera crews from every major television outlet in the Bay Area arrived to cover the demonstration live, including from two helicopters overhead. The regional viewing audience for local broadcast news is estimated at more than 400,000.
“Our families, our communities and our friends have been terrorized, and we’re not for that,” said Jolia Bossette, an 11th-grader at East Bay Arts who helped organize the joint walkout by EBA and SLzHS, as she was interviewed by a reporter from the NBC affiliate KNTV,
“We came out here today to show you all that although we cannot vote, we expect you all to do something important – change what’s going on.”
Donovan Hernandez, a walkout organizer from Arroyo High, said on camera, “I feel like it’s not really enforcing immigration. It’s just enforcing power and control. Everything going on, killing a 37-year-old man that was trying to help, that’s not immigration, that’s power.”
Aware of the planned action, schools informed students in advance that they could take the day as an excused absence under state law to participate in a civic or political event, with prior request from parents or guardians. School officials also made sure students knew they could choose to continue their studies.
District administrators and members of the Board of Education have recognized and praised the students for their actions, even if it meant missing class time on a day of early dismissal. They note that the protest was in line with the district Vision Statement, which states that SLZUSD graduates will become “resilient, well-informed, civically engaged advocates for equity and social justice.”
“We’re proud of them. I think that’s the bottom line,” said Scott Faust, director of communications and community engagement, told KNTV during the walkout. “They’re learning from this, they’re making an impact through their message and they’re doing so peacefully.”
Bossette said the next day she was gratified to see students come together to make a statement to the community.
“I’m just so happy that so many people showed up,” she said. “And then the news coverage shows that people really can hear what we were trying to do.”