Watsonville High School senior Nayeli Lopez is about a year away from being old enough to vote, but that hasn’t stopped her from getting involved in local activism.
Lopez, 17, is president of the school’s Education, Community, Humanitarian, Outreach (ECHO) Leadership Academy. She and other students organized a last-minute walkout protest that took place outside the school Tuesday at 2pm.
After organizers sent out about 300 invitations late last week, the event drew several hundred of students, teachers and school employees, all of which garnered honks of support from passing motorists, and from someone apparently not in support of their messages, raised middle fingers from two arms extended through a barely opened window.
Still, the detractor notwithstanding, organizers said they were pleased with the large turnout for the walkout.
“I feel like this is such a great representation of how a small town can be so strong together when we stand together,” Lopez said.
The protest was part of the nationwide “Free America Walkout,” which was organized to mark the anniversary of President Donald Trump’s second inauguration.
The demonstrations were held to oppose a range of administration policies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, National Guard deployments and actions organizers say threaten LGBTQ rights.
“I think it’s just a really great opportunity for leadership, and for all students, since we are going to be at an age where we can start voting,” Lopez said. “I feel like it is a great way for us to express our political beliefs and what we stand for.”
Kiana Garcia, president of the WHS Student Advocacy Group, which helped organize the event, pointed to the detention of a man in Watsonville by ICE agents on Sunday — and other recent arrests across the country — which she compared to early warning signs of oppression in Nazi Germany.
“That’s how it started,” she said. “So that’s why we’re here to advocate.”
Garcia said people her age should not have to carry the weight of those fears.
“Yesterday I was not able to sleep,” she said. “As of recently, I’ve unfortunately been having a lot of dreams about protesting, dreams about what’s going on in the world. And it’s really unfortunate. So I guess that tells you how angry and how passionate I am, how much I’m thinking about it, which consumes me.”
