Los Banos student walk-out protests continued last week, with an estimated 200-300 students, according to Los Banos Unified School District’s Interim Superintendent Sean Richey.
Roughly 1,400 walked out of Los Banos schools two weeks ago, as previously reported by The Express. Making the new total roughly 1,600.
The protests were in response to recent actions by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This past week saw a single protest on Feb. 11.
Richey confirmed that roughly 100 came from Creekside Junior High and 100-200 came from Los Banos Junior High. Creekside students made the two-mile walk to Pacheco Park, and LBJH students made a 1.4-mile walk to the park
“It mostly feels like Los Banos Junior High School students didn’t participate in the previous week, and so they wanted to participate, and that’s where most of it came from,” Richey said. He highlighted that the past walkouts included Creekside, Los Banos High and Pacheco High, but not LBJH. Now all four junior and high schools within city limits have protested.
Richey says the district knew about the upcoming protest on Monday, unlike last week, in which they only learned of the protests the day of.
“Law enforcement was prepared and on scene to ensure that there was ample law enforcement presence for that protest. Thankfully the majority of the protest went peacefully. There was a verbal altercation between students that law enforcement intervened to prevent it from escalating into a physical altercation. However, the remaining participants were peaceful and left the area by about 3[p.m.],” Los Banos Police Commander Justin Melden told The Express.
Melden confirmed that drones were used over this protest in addition to the police presence. He estimated that roughly 120 students made it the entire walk to the park and noted that it ended earlier than the previous protests.
“We’re working with the school sites to provide a safe venue for students if they wish to express their right to protest or express their opinions, [to] have their voices heard. We’re providing a venue for them to be able to do so on campus as opposed to leaving school because it creates an unsafe situation for all involved. And so parents and staff and students themselves would feel that they’re safer on campus as opposed to going off campus without any supervision,” Richey announced.
Those venues for student opinions will be hammered out as school site administrators talk with student leaders, Richey explained.
