WATSONVILLE — The walkout at Watsonville High School Wednesday began at 10 a.m., when a small group of students walked through campus, shouting “Walkout!”
And their peers responded en masse, forming a crowd along East Beach Street that easily topped 2,000.
Perhaps what is most important to note about the walkout at the school — and at thousands of schools across the U.S. — was that it was created and led entirely by students.
The coast-to-coast protests were the barbaric yawp of young people terrified at the rising occurrence of school shootings and furious at the seeming inaction by lawmakers to address the problem.
The walkout fell exactly one month after a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
A group of survivors from that incident launched the 17-minute walkout as a way for participants to honor the 17 people killed there, and to demand action by Congress.
Watsonville High organizer Sophia Elizalde, 17, said her passion for this cause began on Dec. 14, 2012, when a gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut slaughtered 26 people, including 20 children.
Talking about the event still brings Elizalde to tears.
“I was a kid and I’ve never experienced anything like that,” she said. “I’ve been really passionate about protecting my community and making sure that I don’t see any more kids that are killed in this world.”
Elizalde said she is also inspired by Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, famous for surviving a shooting to become an outspoken activist for girls’ education.
“I love learning,” she said. “I want to make sure that as many people as possible get that chance, and are able to live past 17 and go to college if they want to, and to have a chance at success, and be able to make this country a place that they are proud to be in.”
Elizalde said she hoped the community took from the demonstration the understanding that she and her peers have a powerful voice and an important message, and that lawmakers should ignore it only at their peril.
“Students and teenagers are just beginning to rise up and have our voices heard, and we’re close to being able to vote,” she said. “We could very easily put on a united front and turn the tables, and I think it’s very important for politicians to keep that in mind.”
In addition to the protest, 14 schools throughout the county invited the Santa Cruz County Clerk’s office to be on hand to help students register to vote.
“Nearly 90,000 youth in California have signed up to vote, so they are automatically activated when they are 18,” Santa Cruz County Clerk Gail Pellerin said. “It is inspirational to see so many young people want to be engaged and have their voices heard at the ballot box.”
Juana Bonilla, 17, said she was participating because it was “the right thing to do.”
“It’s good for students to stand up for themselves,” she said.
Rocio Navarro, 16, said her interest in the cause comes from personal experience with gun violence.
Her father, an ex-Marine, suffered from schizophrenia and was addicted to methamphetamine when he obtained a gun and fired three shots into their home, with several family members inside.
A gun law preventing dangerous people from having firearms, she said, might have prevented the incident.
“It’s so awful to think that we could be next,” she said.
Pajaro Valley Unified School District Superintendent Michelle Rodriguez said that students would not face disciplinary measures for the walkout, as long as they did not leave campus or skip any subsequent classes.
It was a somewhat different scene at Pajaro Valley High School, where scores of students gathered in the gym to browse among a variety of informational booths.
The booths were there to make students aware of the resources on campus they can turn to should they feel unsafe, senior Liszette Gonzalez said.
“Life is a rollercoaster,” she said. “We want them to know that you can get through those bumps.”
Gonzalez called for a moment of silence as she read off the names of the 17 students and staff who were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Watsonville High School sophomore Dannika Marcus, who was leading several chants for the crowd, expressed her incredulity about laws that prohibit 18 year olds from buying alcohol, even as they are allowed to buy firearms.
“We need to get our voice out there, because we can make a change,” she said.
