East L.A. Mendez High Students Walk Out—Again!—to Demand “Trump/Pence Regime Must GO”
November 17, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From a member of the Revolution Club, LA
Over 40 students from Mendez High School in East Los Angeles walked out from school and took to the streets in protest for the second time since the one-year anniversary of the election of the fascist Donald Chump. These students have courageously stepped out in righteous indignation to the horrors that the fascist regime in the White House has already unleashed. At a time when far too many people who hate what Trump is doing are learning to remain silent, are beginning to accommodate, or just accept as inevitable the horrors to come, even when that could be a nuclear war, these students said, “Fuck NO!, Trump and Pence Must Go!”
The week before students spread the word on Snapchat after one student heard the Revolution Club calling on students to walk out at a different high school and watched the trailer of Bob Avakian’s latest talk, The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go! In the Name of Humanity We Refuse to Accept a Fascist America: Another World IS Possible. Mendez HS students walked out on the 8th, took to the streets and marched around different campuses calling on others to walk out. The Revolution Club joined them and let them know about the mission we were on along with many others of diverse viewpoints to drive out the Trump/Pence Regime because of its fascist nature and the consequences this will mean for all of humanity if they aren’t driven out through massive protests. We let them know what we started on Nov. 4 and the urgent need for these protests to continue and keep growing, they said they could organize another walkout for the following week. One student made a call to students all across the country to get involved. When the Revolution Club went to Mendez to pass out fliers and talk to students about the walk out, several of them already knew about it.
On Wednesday morning, Nov. 15, Mendez students started texting us asking if we would come to their school to help them walkout, when we responded, “Hell yes!” they told us to bring the bullhorn.
A student organizer with Refuse Fascism joined one of the Revolution Club members at Mendez and we waited outside for the students. They planned on walking out right at the front and asked us to meet them there. However, word had got out to the school administration and the principal started telling students that they better not walk out. And when the time students had planned to walk out came, the exits were guarded by staff and school police. We stood out front agitating on the bullhorn as students gathered feet away from the guarded gate. They texted us to let us know that all the exits were being blocked by staff. We kept agitating about the stakes involved right now and spoke directly to the teachers blocking the exits letting them know that whatever their intentions, they were doing something wrong by preventing the students from walking out.
The crowd began to thin out until only a few students remained, including a couple of hecklers who tried making fun of the fact that we weren’t being successful at calling the students out. We repeated the ignorant comments made by these students and spoke to the heartlessness captured in making those remarks as children are crying from having their families ripped apart right around them and others in North Korea younger than them are having safety drills in school because the very real threat of them being incinerated by a nuclear bomb looms over them. This had an impact on the students who were laughing at the foolishness coming from their fellow schoolmates—they stopped laughing, the hecklers walked away, and other students signaled to us that they were going to make it out the side of the school.
The crowd had almost completely dispersed, when we saw a couple of students running across the street away from the school. We walked around the school and met with a couple of other members of the Revolution Club who had just arrived when all of a sudden about 40 more students poured out the side. They told us that there were more students who wanted to get out but couldn’t find a way. One student later told us that he made a map on his phone that led to the exit they were able to escape through and sent it to his friends still trapped inside.
The students picked up signs and marched around the school chanting, “Trump and Pence Must Go!” along with “Join Us! Join Us! Join Us!” One buffoon of a teacher angrily yelled at these students that they were stupid for doing this, but the students remained undeterred and continued to chant while the person on the bullhorn let people know that this idiot was the one who was wrong and the students were the ones who were courageous by doing the right thing.
We took the streets as we marched over 1st Street bridge heading toward downtown Los Angeles getting an overwhelmingly positive response from people outside all the small shops and businesses. Cars honked their horns and raised their fists in approval, even the ones who were being slowed down by these youth taking up the street lanes. We also came across the occasional Trump supporters, and the students defiantly yelled at them to fuck off. We marched into Pershing Square triumphantly, and after a few minutes rest some students stood on the corner distributing fliers to passersby letting them know about the next protest on Nov. 18 letting people know that this is a fight so that “Trump will no longer be the president.”
While we hung out at Pershing Square, I started asking some of the students why they decided to walk out. One student just said because he “don’t like Trump” and “fuck Trump.” But when I asked another student nearby why he walked out and this student responded that he didn’t like school and didn’t really care about what was going on, the students who were around immediately got on his case, saying, “fuck you!” and “asshole.” And the first student, who had only said he didn’t like Trump, challenged him by asking, “You mean to tell me that if ICE comes to your house, kicks down your door and snatches your family away that you wouldn’t care?” A student told me later that that kid wasn’t serious, that he did care but he was trying to act cool. Another student said she did it because other people can’t speak up and that they are afraid—that all they did was come here to the U.S. give their kids a better life, and that standing up right now was a way that the youth could give back to their parents who made those sacrifices.
One of the main student organizers saw a video from high school students in New York City giving Mendez High students support for their actions, and she was VERY impacted by it—she couldn't stop saying "WOW!”
The students had a lot of discussion with people there and talked about how they could get further organized and organize others so that this movement could grow among students. They went back home telling us that we would see them again on the 18th.
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