Some students had many emotions regarding the presidential election and expressed them in different ways at a student walkout on the day after the presidential election. Some of these students like Faith Freeman, Karla Herrera and Mauirah Duffey had strong views and emotions about the presidential election results.

Faith Freeman

Q: How do you feel about Trump’s election?

A:            When I found out, I was shocked. I genuinely couldn’t believe Trump had won. I was scared for people of color, people of the LGBTQIA community, women, and people who are undocumented. I see their fear and anger. Also, for myself as a queer woman, I was scared. I worried for the safety of others and myself due to the election results. I’m unhappy with the election, but I feel really united with people I don’t even know and I feel really proud of people for coming together and attending rallies, protests, and making safe places. I am angry, not giving up.

Q: How has the election affected you, your family, and friends?

A: So many of my loved ones are heartbroken, as am I. I think there’s an anger and a fear there, although nothing has gone into play because he’s not in office yet. My friends and even strangers are my family.

Q: Why do you think it was important to participate in the walkout?

A: I think participating in the walkout was important because it showed that as students and young people, we have a voice. We are educated and we are united. With that comes so much power. We were not protesting to stop him from becoming President, we met and rallied to unite and share our anger, hurt, fears, and love for one another.

Q: What do you want to tell students or anyone who thought the walkout and protesting is meaningless?

A: I can’t change the minds of students who felt our rally was pointless. What I can say is that I have never seen such unity in Venice High School and I’ve never been so proud. What happened at the rally doesn’t happen every day. I’ll remember it for the rest of my life. My fears were lifted off my shoulders as tears were shed amongst strangers, even if just for the hour or two that we were all together. The youth at our school and other schools has given me hope.

Mauriah Duffey

Q: How do you feel about the election?

A:            The election results for me were unfortunate because I am a minority and I know minorities feel the same way I do.

Q: How has the election affected you, your family, and friends?

A:            I noticed everyone is sad. It affects my family because I know since Trump’s trying to get businesses to stay over here and trying to charge tariffs on other businesses outside of this country, prices are going to rise for me and my family and that’s going to affect us because we come from a low income background.

Q: Why do you think it was important to participate in the walkout?

A:            It showed unity. That’s why I went. For me it wasn’t really a walkout it was more about getting together and supporting each other. A walkout to me seems like a protest and holding up signs and walking out on the streets and saying we don’t want Trump, but we stayed at school and talked to each other. A lot of people felt bad and were crying, but we were there for each other. I had a lot of friends who were affected and I could just tell on the first day I came back from school everybody was having a bad day.

Q: What do you want to tell students or anyone who thought the walkout and protesting is meaningless?

A:            I want to tell others it wasn’t pointless and I know they’ve been hearing it a lot, but it wasn’t because we have a right for people to know our opinion just the way he has a right to say what he has to say. It made it a lot easier to know certain people have the same feelings you have and that you can get through it together.

Karla Herrera

Q: How do you feel about the election?

A:            I want to say I feel unafraid, but the truth is I am afraid because I feel like my future and the future of many people that are benefiting from DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), and women who are brown aren’t going to be protected that much now that he’s in power. I feel it’s very unfortunate that a white man like Trump is going into power here when it seemed like things were just changing with Obama becoming president. Instead of things going forward, it feels like we’re just going back. For many of us, we already have all these obstacles in our lives and now this is another thing we have to learn how to overcome.

Q: How has the election affected you, your family, and friends?

A:            Now my brother and I are afraid that DACA might go away and we really depend on it. Without it, we really aren’t anything because you can’t really do anything without a social security number. When I go to a university and want to get a job there, but I have no social security number what am I going to do? Will I have to clean houses?

Q: Why do you think it was important to participate in the walkout?

A:            It was very important to participate in the walkout because at the end of walkout I felt so much warmth in my heart, very supported and that I wasn’t alone with what I was going through. Even speaking out in the walkout made a big impact in my life because I received feedback from people even strangers telling me what I did was beautiful and it’s something that inspires me to really want to stay in this country.

Q: What do you want to tell students or anyone who thought the walkout and protesting is meaningless?

A:            If you were present at the walkout and didn’t feel what many of us felt and didn’t feel kind of relieved or weren’t touched by some of the things that were said and done during the walkout, I think that you are a part of the privileged group. I think coming together in times where we really need to be in solidarity is very important to some of us because we need to ensure that we are safe. A lot of us need to be reminded that our feelings are valid and that we are allowed to feel a certain way. If we are told otherwise by other people who simply don’t see the point in what we are doing, they are ignorant. We have a right to feel what we feel.