Election results spark political participation at Samo

The first palpable expression against the presidential election results came Wednesday, Nov. 9 at 10:30 a.m., when instead of going to their second period classes, angry, sad and overall bewildered students gathered in the science quad to voice their misgivings with cries of “F*ck Donald Trump!”The protest mastermind, Zoe D’Andrea (’18), coordinated the walkout by utilizing group chats and Facebook as assets, after a discussion in her A.M. English class two hours prior.“I never had even thought about that result being a possibility; my mind never really went there,” D’Andrea said. “Once reality hit me, that this man might become our next president, it made me actually more scared than I had ever been. I was watching all of the news coverage on the election and it got me really fired up. The next day we were talking about the election in Ms. Stevens’ class and she was saying that we should never stop fighting for what we believe in, and that we should never stop showing what we care about. That’s what inspired me.”Witness accounts put the number of students in attendance at anywhere from 500 to 2,000.“The outcome was better than I could have imagined,” D’Andrea said. “Walking out to the rally, I felt connected with other people that I’ve never felt any connection to before. I felt proud to be a part of this school.”ASB President Brandon Hall-Pascascio (’17) said he felt empowered as he watched his peers   response to the call to protest.“I knew about the walk out beforehand, but I had no idea that that many people were going to participate and I didn’t expect everyone to be so negative at first. We were all so angry,” Hall-Pascascio said.As the march progressed, Hall-Pascascio felt a sense of duty to be in the Greek with his peers. “I felt like it was my duty to come up in the Greek in front of everyone at the rally because I was elected to represent our student body, but I did not expect high school students to be so passionate about something,” Hall-Pascascio said. “This is a learning experience. Eight years ago our first African-American president was elected. Since then, gay marriage has been made legal, along with a lot of other really progressive things. We can’t just stop fighting for those things.” Susi Basse (’17), who created a Facebook page advocating the walkout so that her friends and peers would have a place to commiserate, was among the student protestors who began congregating on the Science Quad. They later moved to the Greek, because a teacher had notified them that there were classes in the Science building which required a quiet atmosphere.“I honestly thought only a couple of people would actually show up, and I was sure as soon as the security showed up that everyone would get up and leave,” Basse said. “Not only did everyone stay, [but] the admin said they were proud of us and were supportive of our cause. It was only until we got to the Greek did I realize how many people showed up; at least 2000 or something students. It was amazing, I've never felt more support from my community ever.”Samo Principal Dr. Antonio Shelton, in an email memo to the Samo staff, called the protesters “respectful and peaceful in their demonstration,” but ultimately requested that the students return to their third period classes, where he promised teachers would lead discussions about their feelings.“We want to foster the open dialogue necessary for these students to express their feelings about what has happened and what they want to achieve next together as a school,” Shelton said in the email. Overall, Shelton believed the student response on campus has been a positive experience.“I believe it has empowered people to do something rather than sit and allow the government to just operate without the voice of the people-progressing,” Shelton said.Basse believes that the walking out of class in protest is just the beginning for political action for students.“Now that we got the chance to vent and be angry, we now have to get together and give back to our community. Thank God we live in such a liberal area where we have organizations committed to social justice, environmentalism, and such. We need to reach out to their programs, donate, protest with them: basically get more involved with our community,” Basse said.Hall-Pascascio also wants students to follow up their protest with more action.“Overall, we are striving for a peaceful country- a more peaceful world, and we need to put action behind our words,” Hall-Pascascio said. Reassurance and advice was given out by California Senator Ben Allen who visited the campus on Thursday, Nov. 10.Spanish and Immersion Freshman Seminar teacher Claudia Bautista invited Senator Allen, who happens to be her brother-in-law, to her second period Spanish Language AP class to encourage and inspire her students.“I asked him to come because Wednesday had been such a difficult day for my kids I wanted them to still feel a sense of ownership of their government,” Bautista said.Bautista said she was particularly concerned about the LGBTQ community and undocumented students.“The rhetoric against them had been so negative, I was worried about how they would react to the new reality,” Bautista said.According to Senator Allen, his visit was really about reassuring the students that despite the outcome of the national elections, California leaders will still be fighting for what Californians hold sacred: inclusion, immigration and the environment.“Students were understandably very emotional about the election results and the impact this election could have on their future,” Allen said. “We spoke about the importance of not losing hope, not giving in to the forces of bigotry and hatred.” Allen also offered his analysis on why the election results induced such a strong reaction.“Many of us here in Santa Monica take pride in our politically-engaged and progressive town that celebrates diversity and inclusion,” Allen said. “Those of us who live here tend to take for granted the many opportunities and feeling of inclusion this community offers. The federal election and the related national discussion and events have been a wake-up call that reminds us that people in many parts of the country see things quite differently from us, and some are even openly hostile to our values.”Allen also provided insight on the balance of powers between state and federal governments and how to engage in respectful dissent and peaceful protest.“We also talked about the need to be respectful of everyone’s opinions, regardless of how distasteful we may find them. Our country was founded on the principle of freedom of ideas, and our Democracy has been tested over time by political movements many of us would disagree with,” Allen said. “I think we would do well to remember the words of Michelle Obama at a speech she gave this summer about the angry rhetoric on the campaign trail, ‘When they go low, we go high.’” Samo student Layla Jimenez (’17), who was present during Senator Allen’s visit, reflected on the discussion that perspired in the classroom. Like many who were in Ms. Bautista’s class that morning, Jimenez found Senator Allen’s words assuring.“He helped ease some of the anxiety I couldn’t get rid of since the election,” Jimenez said. “Before, It was like there was this anger and frustration welling up in my chest, but once Senator Allen talked about productive ways to voice our fury, I felt like I could take that anger and use it as an asset to create change.”By Thursday, the emotions had subsided, but order continued as students from TedX Samohi and Progressive Economics clubs came together to take part in a student demonstration.Samo students Angela Gomba (’17) and Xander Lee (’17) organized the peaceful student protest along with their fellow peers to take place on Thursday, Nov. 17. The “Democracy in Action Protest March” congregated on the Samo Basketball courts at 3:30 p.m., and closed towards the end of the Third Street Promenade at 5:30 p.m. Students chanted phrases which expressed their disapproval of the newly elected president such as “we reject the president elect,” “education not deportation” and “the people united will never be divided.”“When we walked along the sidewalks cars would honk in support, people would clap, high-five us, and smiled at us. Our voices were definitely heard,” Gomba said. She had spread awareness of the event mostly using Facebook, and about 50 students were able to come out and march.“It went really well!” Gomba said. “The turnout wasn't as big as we hoped, but everyone was engaged and our collective voices made up for all the missing people.”Dr. Shelton believes the outrage over Trump’s election partly owes itself to the diversity present on campus. He explained why he believes Samo had been thrown into such a whirlwind since the election.“I think the election has had such an immense impact on our school because it is a diverse school. We’re not an all white school, we’re not an all black school, we’re not an all latino school. We are a diverse school, so we have many different perspectives,” Shelton said.Shelton and others have pointed out that this election has, if nothing else, brought students together and inspired more civic engagement than has been seen in many years.“Since we have many perspectives, we’re going to have many different ideas about the way government should operate and we’re going to also have a diverse take on things,” Shelton said. “Coming together like we do allows us to see that we are not alone with our voices.”