Many older community members have been at the forefront of periodic "No Kings" protests in downtown Lafayette, as well as in Concord and Walnut Creek and elsewhere since President Donald Trump began serving his second term in January 2025, but seeing younger folks at these types of events was reportedly rare. That changed on Feb. 4 when hundreds of high school students from Acalanes, Campolindo, Miramonte, Los Lomas, and Carondelet as well as students from Joaquin Moraga Intermediate School and others walked out of class a half-hour before the end of school to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) actions in Minnesota and honor the lives of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. 

    Evelyn Hollenberg, 16, who was one of the student organizers of the high school protest, says she’s grateful to the older community members for protesting even when youth are sometimes preoccupied with school and extracurricular activities. Hollenberg says she is counting down the days until she can vote, but until then, she feels an obligation to do what she can do and join in the protests.
 
        “One thing that I was thinking about recently was Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, when Lincoln says that ‘government by the people, for the people, shall not perish from this earth,’” Hollenberg said. To Hollenberg, it feels like the government is working against its people and those who came to America in hopes of making a better life for themselves while contributing to America, regardless of their status. 
    Ary Deepak, another  student organizer, wants to upend the narrative that teenagers are indifferent.

    “People tend to have a perception that teenagers just don't really care about what's happening in their society, in their world, and are kind of just disconnected trying to get by,” Deepak said. “But we do care. The things that are happening now are what we're going to grow up into and going to live in. We need to show that we do care and stand in solidarity.” 

    For those who feel a little too disheartened or overwhelmed by the current state of politics in the country, Deepak urges them to push through and stand up for others. “If it's not you or your group that's being targeted, it'll be some other marginalized person or group that they will try and deport from this country, and then it'll be people who even just disagree with them, where people have different ideas and it'll just keep going; it's a very slippery slope. We can’t just allow this to happen. We have to show up.” 

    Participating high school students walked out of class precisely at 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 4 and then took to the peripheries of their respective schools.