User:Chinesefox

If you were to tell me a couple of months ago that over 150 students from my high school were going to walk out to protest a bill that the government was trying to pass, I would have thought that you were crazy. I would have told you that there is no way in this world these students are actually going to walk out of school to go protest something and if they did they would just being doing it so that they could get out of school. But, now I stand corrected.

On Monday March March 27.2006 over 150 students walk off of Gompers High School campus to protest against the march. I was walking to second period and I started noticing that a lot of the students were running towards the front gates. I had thought at the time that there was a fight going on. Now, I must say that even though I do oppose violence, I enjoy watching a fight every once and awhile. So I was walking down and my friend turns to me and says " Oh my GOD!! They are walking out!! They're walking out!!". I was stunned. I had heard about students doing this on the news but i never thought that it would happen to my school. I was in complete shock. I then proceeded to my first period class where I told my sister "MAN!! they are walking out". She was very excited and eager to leave the classroom. She told me " Let's go there is no way we are going to miss this". I was a little hesitant at first because I thought....man im going to get in so much trouble. All the work for today I will have to make up... but, then I started to think there is no way that I could not let myself participate in something as big as this. This was something that would go down in history. Legendary.. there was no way that I was not going to be apart of it so I set all of my worries aside and I walked out with the rest of the students. As we were walking outside of the gates it seemed as if the teachers were encouraging us. They made us sign a list that ensured that we would not be marked truant for the day. At first when we started marching we marched around Gompers Park. But, we wanted to do more then let the people around our neighborhood know what is going on. Heck if we could we would have told the world. So we started walking up Carolina Ave towards Gompers Middle School. Once we got up there the teachers tried their best to get us back down in to the school. They offered us the chance to go down to the school and talk to the press in Center Court (lunch area). But no.. we could not go back. This was something we truely believed in so we turned around and started the long walk to Chicano Park. I remember as I was walking I felt so proud of our school for participating in such a huge event. We marched and we chanted "VIVA LA RAZA!!!" and " THE RACES UNITED WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED". That day there was no enemies. We all came together for the general cause. To let the government know that we opposed this bill that they were trying to pass. A bill that would deport illegal immigrants from this country no questions asked. It hit home to us because most of the students from our school were there illegally or they had parents who were immigrants from another country. If the bill is passed, where will all the students with illegal immigrant parents go? So together we decided to make a stand. As we were walking down the street others started joining us. No, there was not only Mexicans in the crowd, there were people from all races. Because they too know what it feels like to live in a country that needs you, yet does not seem to want you. Once we got to Chicano park we saw that there were already students there. There had to be over three hundred students that day. And together our voices rang out " WE WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED". After that the students decided they wanted to march all the way to City College right next to San Diego High School. I was extremly tied by then...also a little hungry and I thought...man this is probably the most walking some of these kids have ever done in their entire life. I laughed at myself thinking...wow you must be crazy..but if your going to be crazy, you might as well be crazy for a good reason. So we started our walk to City College. The police escorted us the entire way. They did not try to attack us or drive us back or anything that is mainly stay on TV. They were their to make sure that we got to our destination safely. They did not bother us as long as we did not bother them. We walked on.. passing news crews and people saluting us for our efforts and it was really hard not to feel proud. To get that amazing feeling in your body. The feeling that your doing something right at the exact right time. Once we reached City College some of the students came out to greet us. We chanted, we sang. I at the time had to use the bathroom extremly bad. I noticed that there was a Jack N' the Box across the street so I went there to use the bathroom. After I came out I went right back across the street. That is when all of the Gompers students heard the bad news. It turns out that the list we signed earlier was a lie and we were all marked truent. The police were waiting for us across the street. We were not allowed to cross the street because if we had then we would have been arrested for truancy. We were so confused. They had told us right to our faces that if we signed that paper then we would not be marked truent yet the police were waiting across the street to arrest us. So the only thing we could do was sit on the grass and wait. Later on the school sent us a bus to take us back to the school. But, most of the students encouraged us not to get back on the bus because now they were trying to suspend us for our acts of truancy. For most of us the choice was simple, take the bus back and face the consequences. But for others the will to go forward push a little more was there. Those were the kids that stayed. I however went on the bus. Not because i wanted to. I would have given anything to stay there. The only problem was that I did not have a ride home. When we got on the bus there was a school officer assuring us that we would not get suspended that he would talk to the principel himself to make sure that we did not get anymore then we really deserved. Once we got back to the school he stayed true to his word and we were let off with a Saturday school. The principal took us all to center court and he let us express our thoughts freely. He did not tell us that he was disappointed in us. He did not regret that this had happened. He explained to us that there were other ways that we could have handled this. There is no right way. But for us students, walking out seemed like the best way to get our point across. We did what we thought would make the most impact and it did. We were on the front page in the newpaper and all over the news. We were heard. I have to say that that day was the best day in my entire life and I will remember it forever.

--Chinesefox 01:37, 3 May 2006 (UTC)China