As graduation approaches, seniors take lessons from months of activism with them
They came out in droves. First on March 14. Then on March 24. Then again on April 20.
They made signs. Garnered attention. They planned. They organized. They raised their voices.
Students across Ventura County mirrored the shock and horror of the nation after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people on Valentine’s Day. And they took their shock, horror and outrage to spark a movement that rippled through local school districts.
They used their collective voice to say, “No more.” No more silence, end gun violence. That became the rallying cry for teenagers across Ventura County calling for action and smart gun legislation from Congress.
The senior class of the county’s high schools often helped lead the charge for student activism at school sites. All of the walkouts, walk-ins and marches in the past several months were planned, executed and promoted by students.
Many of the organizers will move their tassels and stride across a stage this spring, saying goodbye to high school but vowing to carry their experiences with them into the next chapter of their lives.
Getting involved
Eric Martinez was always interested in politics. The Ventura High School senior readily admits he didn’t know at first what he wanted to do with politics — but he always knew he was interested.
A friend got him involved in Youth and Government and his life changed from there. It was at a Youth and Government conference that he found out about the March for Our Lives and National School Walkout movements, both of which started just days after a gunman strode into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and killed 13 students and four faculty members.
“Everyone always told me I would make a good politician because I’m really good at talking. … And I have a disarming smile,” Martinez said. “I know I want to be in the political sphere.”
But it wasn’t until after Parkland that Martinez got involved in planning and organizing a large event. He and another senior organized Ventura High’s first walkout on March 14. Hundreds of students left their classrooms and followed a careful path around the school until they filed onto the football field and listened to student speakers and registered and pre-registered to vote. When they were finished, the students went back to class.
“It was kind of a leap-of-faith thing, I had to push it to be as big as possible,” Martinez said. ” I had never planned something like that before, but I had seen a lot of movements happen. ... I knew that with this I had a clear idea of what I wanted it to be and then I just employed social media.”
Elsewhere in the county, other students found themselves in similar situations. They knew they wanted to have an impact and had to figure out how.
Kimia Mohebi, a senior at Oak Park High School, saw her chance and took it. She planned the March 14 walkout at the high school where students gathered for speeches, a moment of silence and voter registration. But Mohebi had always been interested in activism and making a difference.
“When Parkland happened, I was shocked and hurt and felt so betrayed by my government and my country,” Mohebi said. “But at the same time, it was no time to stop the pace and motivation. It was further ammunition to make sure this never happened to my school.”
Mohebi had been more active than most in politics, taking a keen interest at age 8 in the 2008 presidential election between Barack Obama and John McCain.
“From then on, I kind of just kept with it,” Mohebi said. “I was fairly into it from a really young age. I was never really given the opportunity to create my own platform until the March 14 walkout was brought up.”
Other students also found their power in planning an event after the Parkland shooting.
Luisa Medina, a senior at Pacifica High School in Oxnard, always wanted to help people. She was a little on the shy side, but that didn’t stop her from getting involved with volunteer projects early on in high school. She’s helped out with several FOOD Share initiatives at school and spent time helping special needs students with science experiments.
Then the Thomas Fire hit.
In Oxnard with the air thick with smoke and soot as the ashes fell over Ventura County on the first full day of the fire, school was canceled. Medina and some other students still showed up at Pacifica.
They were going to collect donations. It started with a few cases of water, and through word-of-mouth and social media, suddenly there were dozens of students at the school operating something that more closely resembled a Costco than a high school.
“I just remember showing up and it started off with just a few of us doing it,” Medina said. “We didn’t have time to think about ourselves, but instead we were thinking, ‘You know what? These people who lost homes, they deserve our help.’”
Medina took what she had learned from working with her fellow classmates and faculty members during the fire to help organize a demonstration on March 14 that honored the victims of the Parkland shooting by having a 17-minute memorial and tribute where students read the names of the victims and had a moment of silence.
In the Conejo Valley and other east county schools, students across different campuses banded together. As a unit, they formed Never Again SoCal, a grass-roots movement of high school students demanding action to prevent mass shootings.
Kylie Vincent has been headstrong as long as she can remember. The Newbury Park High School senior has been involved with both walkouts at the school, on March 14 and April 20. She wanted to make sure she was doing whatever she could to show solidarity with other students across the nation and push for gun law reform.
“The Parkland kids really pushed for more activism, and we really wanted to honor that,” Vincent said. At the first event on March 14, students remained on campus and honored the victims with speeches and moments of silence. On April 20, nearly 100 students walked off the campus to organize at a nearby park.
They wrote letters to victims of school shootings, had student speakers and brought their laptop computers for voter registration.
“We want to make change, and it isn’t going to stop with the Parkland activists,” Vincent said.
Finding their voice
The students used the events to remember the victims of the Parkland shooting, of the Columbine shooting — and every school shooting in between. But they also used the events as a platform to talk about gun violence, gun legislation and the importance of casting a ballot and registering to vote.
“When Parkland hit, it just sort of ignited an enthusiasm that we haven’t seen in my lifetime yet,” said state Sen. Henry Stern. “I think they just found their power in that moment in a way. It wasn’t just in our backyard. A lot of students saw their potential across the country.”
Stern, D-Canoga Park, and his office helped the students of Never Again SoCal learn about organizing events, utilizing social media and creating a message. The Never Again SoCal students took the advice and ran with it. Mohebi was one of them.
“Other students from different schools would meet on Fridays after school and would have meetings on what to do next,” Mohebi said.
Since the March 14 walkout, Mohebi has been involved in other community organizations to call for gun reform, including a push to register voters before the June primary election.
Other schools in the Never Again SoCal group worked to plan an even bigger demonstration for April 20.
Planning the second walkout, and leaving campus, was a little scarier for the students at Newbury Park High School, Vincent said. They faced truancies and potential Saturday school consequences. But they pushed forward.
“It’s scary in high school to stick up for what you believe in because of all the boundaries that are all around you,” Vincent said. “We didn’t know if it would be just our little group … but it was so many more people than I thought it would be. They looked confident walking out. You could tell everyone there was doing what they believed was right.”
And she didn’t let the momentum stop with the walkout. Vincent is also planning her own event on the school’s campus in late May. It’s called “Never Again,” and her hope is that it can bring together people from across party lines for an evening of performances by dancers, singers and poets who will all share the common themes of coming together in peace or gun violence.
All proceeds raised from the event will go to the March for Our Lives foundation.
“We just want our schools and our world to be safer. The best way I know how to do that is through art,” said Vincent, a dancer and theater student. “I figured if we did a night that was no speaking, but through music and dance, it could bring people together.”
Elsewhere in the county, the students didn’t just plan and participate in walkouts and move on, either. They saw it as a catalyst.
Between the Thomas Fire and the walkout organization, Medina realized she had found something she was passionate about.
“I wouldn’t think that doing any of this would change the way that I am,” Medina said. ” I never thought that I would have a voice, that what I do matters to others. But especially senior year shaped the way I think of myself. It shifted. I do realize I have a voice and I can use it to help others and that’s something I never really thought of before.”
Just over a month after the March 14 walkout demonstrations, students from Ventura’s high schools and one middle school marched to Ventura City Hall on the 19th anniversary of the Columbine shooting to take a stand against gun violence once again.
Martinez went to that one, too, although he didn’t organize it. But he was asked to say a few words.
After the walkout on March 14, Martinez went to the March for Our Lives event in Washington, D.C., and listened to Parkland survivors share their stories and call for gun reform as he stood among thousands of people.
It was there that he connected with students who founded the National Association of Students Against Gun Violence “to organize and focus the initiative of the millions of American students fighting to live in a nation free from gun violence.”
Martinez is helping start the California chapter and hopes he can work with other students to “keep awareness in the community.”
“The whole purpose is to continue the current movement and make sure it doesn’t get muddled and lost,” Martinez said.
Impact
The student demonstrations not only caught the attention of the media but also local political figures.
U.S. Rep. Julia Brownley hosted a town hall meeting for students to talk about gun violence, just one day after the April 20 walkout. A couple dozen students piled into a conference room on a Saturday morning to take their turn at a microphone and address Brownley.
“I hope and I strongly believe that this time is and will be different,” Brownley said of the Parkland shooting. “Things have already begun to change. ... These changes came from the demands of students just like you. ... Never let anyone tell you your voice will not be heard or it cannot have an impact, because clearly it can, it has and it will.”
Martinez and the other students are acutely aware of the scope of their movement and the power they can wield for change. He said the only era he could think to compare this level of activism to was the civil rights movement.
“I don’t think it’s ever gone to this level with students,” Martinez said. “I honestly think it’s social media and that connectivity and the recent election and all the wars that have happened since then. There’s so much tension, and adults aren’t doing what they need to be doing.
“My generation was like, ‘We are going to do it and we are going to do it bigger and better than anyone else before us.’”
Ventura County Superintendent of Schools Stan Mantooth watched as the students organized and started a movement in the county. He said he recalled a time when he was young in the late 1960s and there was a wave of student activism. The differences, though, were that there was no internet and the movement largely consisted of college students.
“With the student demonstration of solidarity and taking up causes and walking out of classes to make their point, I think it’s exactly what public education is all about,” Mantooth said. “It’s about promoting the democracy. And we are always talking about voice, and saying, ‘Find your voice.’”
Mantooth said he also applauded the administrators at school sites for being willing to work with students and give them a voice — and, in some cases, a place to organize on campus.
“The other part of this is, it doesn’t appear the students want to do anything that is in their own self-interest,” Mantooth said. “It appears they really want to do something to move the needle on society. That also, I think, has some roots in our civics education that we are embedding in all grade levels now.”
Mantooth said he doesn’t see the spirit of activism going away in student bodies any time soon.
“This particular cause may ebb and flow depending upon what’s happening, but I think the whole idea of activism itself should continue to increase,” Mantooth said. “It’s just what they do.”
Bright futures
Martinez, Medina, Vincent and Mohebi all said this year has changed them in a lot of ways. Senior year is a time for change, but this particular year showed them they had power in their voice and in their actions.
It’s something they plan to take with them as they prepare for their next steps.
Martinez’s next stop post-graduation is Santa Monica College and then he hopes to transfer to UCLA. He plans to study political science and is considering law school in the future.
Mohebi plans to go to Moorpark College for a year before transferring to a university and will major in political science and minor in human rights studies and Farsi.
Medina plans to head to community college for a year and then hopes to go to the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising.
Vincent will head to New Jersey to study acting at Rider University in the fall.
“To stop here would be kind of foolish. There’s always going to be problems in the world,” Vincent said. “I want to try and change the world as much as I can, even though I’m 18 and probably a small part. Every part is an important part.”