By Mikaela STONE

I“want America to have a future and I want all of us to have a future in America,” Crescenta Valley High School (CVHS) student protestor and Students Demand Action member “Heather” stated in her speech to the assembled CVHS student protestors. Student-led campus organizations, such as the Black Student Union, the Gay Straight Alliance, Fempowerment, the CVHS film club, and Students Stand With Refugees, organized the walkout on March 7 leading the student protesters to the steps of the La Crescenta Library in protest of Donald Trump, his current administration and the Supreme Court. Many students dressed in handmade shirts painted with bloody handprints, which Heather described as “representing aggressors and how they hurt minority communities.” Her shirt also read “My body my choice” written in the same blood-red paint. Student protestor “Stephen” also thinks of the shirts as a way to show “we all bleed the same blood.” 

The politics-based campus organizations have many different focuses, advocating for the rights of people of color, women, members of the LGBTQ+ community and immigrants, but students pointed out that all of these interests boil down to human rights. 

Heather and the other students strongly oppose the “new administration and its clear attempts at tyranny,” citing Donald Trump’s executive orders, the cuts to social services, state abortion bans and America’s current foreign relations as promoted by the Dept. of Government Efficiency. 

Black Student Union member “Garvey” took aim at Trump. He carried a sign that read “Who’s the felon now?” featuring the Exonerated Five, otherwise known as the Central Park Five. (In 1989, five Black and Mexican children were arrested for the sexual assault of white female jogger Trisha Meili: McCray, 15; Richardson, 14; Salaam, 15; Santana, 14; and Wise, 16. After the NYPD interrogated each boy for a reported 14-to-30 hours, all five confessed to the crime including Wise, who had originally not been a suspect and was not in Central Park during the crime; he reportedly had only gone to the police station to offer moral support for Salaam. They were tried as adults and found guilty despite not matching the DNA evidence found at the scene.)

Before the teens’ trial, Donald Trump purchased an ad in four New York newspapers that read (in all capitals): “BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY, BRING BACK OUR POLICE,” arguing for the execution of the boys. In 2002, a serial rapist confessed to Meili’s attack. His DNA matched the evidence found at the scene and the Exonerated Five were finally exonerated. 

“Donald Trump is the actual sex offender, the actual felon,” Garvey said. 

Garvey also protested Trump’s many executive orders, including suspending the legal U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, attempting to end birthright citizenship for immigrants and demanding a “patriotic education” without “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI). In Garvey’s speech, he highlighted the hypocrisy of anti-immigrant GOP sentiment including that Elon Musk is an immigrant from South Africa. He noted, “All these buzzwords [POTUS and his cabinet] continue to use – DEI, Woke – the reason they use these words is because they are against diversity … what America is built on.” 

Garvey drew attention to practices at CVHS that fall under the current administration’s definition of DEI, including the advanced placement African American studies course and teaching about slavery and the Civil Rights Movement. Other CVHS DEI initiatives include the Wellnest, 504 plans and IEPs for neurodivergent students. The New York Times reports that words to be “purged” from the federal government include “accessible,” “activism,” “antiracist,” “at risk,” “bias,” “black,” “climate crisis,” “disability,” “diversity,” “female,” “historically,” “inequality,” “LGBT,” “mental health,” “Native American,” “nonbinary,” “segregation,” “socioeconomic,” “victim” and “women.” 

Garvey concluded, “When they say DEI hire, what they mean is they hate you because of the color of your skin!” 

Student protestor “Emma” opened her speech with a controversial statistic: The USA ranks 55th for maternal mortality rates. 

“We are not this great America that we keep preaching we are and we need to fix it,” she declared. 

While the maternal mortality rate statistic is cited by organizations such as One Health Trust and The American Journal of Managed Care, the article cited comes from a CDC article that has since been taken down by executive order, making it difficult for the Crescenta Valley Weekly to confirm Emma’s fact. It is not the only casualty.  

“Donald Trump has taken down reproductiverights.org, [a] nationwide website for abortion access,” she added. The website included other reproductive health resources such as IVF, birth control and the list of rights regarding pregnancy, such as the right to certain medications like epidural and the right for insurance to cover birth control. 

“If you take away abortions, you can’t take away contraceptives,” asserted student protester “Violet.” She worried that this, combined with a lack of sex education, will lead to “overpopulation in the foster system.” She argued rape victims, especially underage victims, “are not equipped to handle fetuses. It is really sick to force them to have the child that comes from that.”

After their speeches, several students met with the Crescenta Valley Weekly on the street outside Crescenta Valley High School, including Garvey, Heather, Stephen and Violet. They felt it was frustrating that the need for walkouts such as this existed. 

“It’s 2025,” Heather said. “We are a quarter of the way through the century.”

“It’s been proven time and time again progression is the future, people speaking up in the past are considered heroes,” Stephen added.

“They literally assassinated MLK,” Garvey agreed. “In 50 years, I guarantee this cabinet will be considered a dark stain on American history.” 

Only the first names of protestors have been used to protect student privacy.