Since inauguration day, thousands of students have bravely participated in school walkouts across Los Angeles to protest mass deportation, detention, and the hateful and divisive rhetoric pushed by the Trump administration labeling immigrants as violent criminals.  

United Teachers Los Angeles supports our students’ right to protest. In the face of widespread raids of homes and workplaces across the country meant to terrorize and erase immigrant communities, students are standing up for what is right. Right now, many students feel like they are the only voice for their parents and families. 

Students are using their power to protect each other, their families, and their neighborhoods.

Los Angeles has a long-standing tradition of mass student-led walkouts for civil and immigrant rights — in 1968 to protest racial inequity and unfair treatment in LA schools, in 1994 against a California law that would deny undocumented immigrants public services including public education and healthcare, in 2006 against a federal law that would criminalize undocumented immigrants and make it harder to attain residency status, in 2016 to protest the election of Donald Trump, in 2018 to demand stricter gun laws, and in 2020 students marched to LAUSD headquarters to demand the district eliminate funding for school police in the wake of nationwide protests against police killings and racial profiling. 

In 2022, the LAUSD school board passed a resolution and installed a mural commemorating the “54th Anniversary of the 1968 East L.A. Walkouts for Educational Justice.”

Some administrators are taking undue punitive action against students for participating in the walkouts, in an attempt to silence them. But silencing students is not the answer.  

Every student has the right to a free public education, no matter their citizenship status or where they or their family has come from. United Teachers Los Angeles is using the power of our union to protect that right. 

In November, the school board reaffirmed LAUSD as a sanctuary district, directing district officials to establish policies and procedures to protect school campuses from ICE raids. LAUSD has provided “Know Your Rights” red cards for students and families. But when it came to our students demonstrating their power in the streets, the district directed immigrants’ rights organizations to discourage students from participating in walkouts. Although student walkout demonstrations may hurt LAUSD’s attendance rates, our immigrant students, their families, and our colleagues are fighting for their future under the daily threat of detention and deportation. 

We are calling on the district to use its power to take a stand for students, their families, educators, and LAUSD employees. On Tuesday, the 140 UTLA member bargaining team introduced proposals to the district to strengthen and increase immigration support and protections as part of the entire Win Our Future platform of contract demands. Members voted 97% YES to endorse the platform in November. 

UTLA educators stand in solidarity with immigrant students, families, and colleagues.