On Monday November 14th approximately 200 TL students participated in a walk-out at 1:30 p.m to protest much of the divisive rhetoric of our recent national election. To many, it was an anti-Trump protest and to others it was a pro-love demonstration. After peacefully walking out from their sixth period classes, students gathered at the front of the school and started writing phrases and words on the ground with chalk including the phrase “Love trumps hate.” This seemed to be the catchphrase for the rally as many of the signs made where countering some of Trump’s views on abortion, immigration, and the LGBTQ+ community. All the students even started chanting “Love is love.” One student wrote F**K Trump on his abdomen and paraded it around the circle of students while playing a song by a Compton rapper that goes by the name YG. Graphic design teacher, Lisa Cummings commented on the variety of issues being addressed, “Your sign is about gender, they say ‘Love Trumps hate,’ so it’s also about his divisiveness, and somebody else wrote ‘My body my choice,’ which is about reproductive rights…and they’re all under attack with Donald Trump.” Gia Asher, a sophomore at TL said “It can be looked at in many different ways but I think overall it’s a pro- love rally.”

Donald Trump was elected president on Tuesday, November 8th. Nearly a week later not TL students, high school students across the country are staging walk-outs and protests. Many students did not participate or criticized the walk-out because they think it’s too late for action. A Marin IJ photographer who was covering the walk-out says “I don’t know, if you don’t like Trump yeah maybe we are too late. I think it’s an outgrowth of the election and it came at its own time, it came when it was supposed to. You guys are doing this in response and that’s ok, you can’t foresee the future . I don’t think many people could’ve predicted that this was going to happen. I was certainly surprised.”

Regardless of political opinion or efficacy, principal Katy Dunlap was present and supportive of students voicing their concerns. “I think it’s important that kids feel they have the right to express their concerns about our country. I think it’s great that student are wanting to learn more about what they can do and about our democratic process.”