On Tuesday, January 20, 2026—exactly a year after President Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration—a group of Westridge Upper School students participated in the Pasadena Free America Walkout, hosted by the social justice organization Women’s March as a part of over 1,000 demonstrations nationwide. Upper School students walked from Westridge—departing at around 1 p.m.—to the rally point outside of The Paseo in protest of the Trump administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) attacks on immigrant communities. According to Main Office Assistant Ms. Candace Reicke, at least 140 Westridge students participated in the walkout, or over 47% of the Upper School.

While previous demonstrations in protest of the Trump Administration, including the No Kings Protests, were held on weekends, the Free America Walkout was purposefully scheduled for a weekday to interrupt standard business. The Women’s March website reads, “We walk away from fascism. We walk toward a Free America. We fight for a future that belongs to all of us. Everybody in. Nobody out.” 

After President Trump’s return to office last winter, many Westridge students have felt overwhelmed and frustrated by countless headlines detailing families torn apart by ICE, increased militarization, and widespread terror. Over the summer, seniors Esperanza O.-C. and Lucia F.-R. created the Instagram account and club Hope in Action, which provides resources surrounding immigration rights. Esperanza said, “When the heightened ICE enforcement began, seeing that online and constantly seeing the news being bombarded of negative things happening, we felt that we needed to bring more hope to the situation, and we wanted to show that people can make change, people can come together, and collective power is so important.”

Recently, 2,000 ICE agents were deployed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where American citizen Renee Good was fatally shot by a federal agent, and five-year-old Liam Ramos was detained—sparking nationwide outrage. The Free America Walkout made some students feel like they could make a difference. 

Daria C. ’28, who attended the walkout, said, “I feel like with everything going on in the world, it’s really important that you state your values and opinions, especially when those values and opinions are that everybody should have basic human rights.”

On the Friday before the protest, Lexie L. ’26 sent the information for the Pasadena walkout in the senior class WhatsApp group chat. Immediately, members of the class of 2026 began showing their support and interest in participating.

After Spyglass editor and senior class president Kristin C. first heard about the Free America Walkout in the senior group chat, she immediately went to speak with the members of the history department to learn more about past walkouts. She then connected with Head of School Ms. Andrea Kassar and Director of Upper School Dr. Melanie Arias to discuss the details of the protest, ensuring that Westridge students could have a safe experience. 

In order to participate in the walkout, the Upper School office required students to fill out a civic engagement form with a parental signature. “I feel glad that we are able to facilitate our students’ desire to share their voices about issues that are important to them, whatever those issues are, and whenever that feeling comes up,” said Dr. Arias. “And I’m proud to be at a school that has thought thoughtfully in advance about that and has a process set up that we can support students when they want to do that.”

Over the weekend, Kristin kept in contact with other senior leaders of the walkout and Upper School class presidents, helping iron out the logistics of the event and spreading the word through social media. 

Although the protest was planned to take place between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. on January 20, it was an entire day’s event at Westridge. 

Before classes started, Upper School students of all grade levels gathered around the senior tables to decorate protest signs starting at 8:00 a.m. Students put their artistic abilities to work, creating detailed drawings or formulating creative word plays, while others stuck with classic slogans. As more students arrived at the senior tables, a sense of unity swept over the crowd. Some were amazed that so many students planned on participating in the protest. Lucia F.-R. ’26, another creator of Hope in Action, said, “We all came together at the senior tables to make these posters together. It was just so sweet and heartwarming, especially because this is an issue that I’m very passionate about.”

At lunch, before students departed for the protest, Lucia and Esperanza led a short information session in the community room about protesting, informing students about their rights as protestors, what to expect at the walkout, and how to handle possible encounters with ICE. 

As students prepared to depart, Madeleine Court buzzed with excitement. Students checked out with either their class dean or Dr. Arias. After signing out, the Upper School protestors started down Orange Grove, cheering as the passing cars honked in solidarity. Adelle K. ’29 said, “I thought it was really cool when the cars were going by and honking, and I felt the support.”

Upper Schoolers participating in the protest walked 2.2 miles from Westridge to The Paseo, an open-air Pasadena shopping center on Colorado Boulevard. They arrived at around 2 p.m. and joined a group of over three hundred protestors gathered between the streets Raymond and Lake. Westridge students held up their signs, cheered, and chanted various slogans. 

The sense of unity fostered in the morning of the walkout strengthened throughout the day. For some Westridge students, like freshman Noelle D., the Free America Walkout was their first protest, while others have been attending protests for the majority of their lives. Ella S. ’29 said, “I’ve been going to protests since I was little, and it just feels so good to be part of a community that is fighting for something.”

“People felt really unified as a community because of the protest, because it was a lot of people in one area working towards one specific thing. And even when we were making signs or getting other people to go or just advertising the protest in general, it felt like we were working towards something important,” sophomore class president Katherine D. added.

Junior Josephine S. noted the lack of attendance of students from other local schools at the protest, something that Esperanza noticed as well. Josephine said, “I thought going with other Westridge students was really nice. It was good to see our community coming together over issues that people agree upon and sort of, you know, practicing civic engagement.” 

Despite there not being very many other high school students at the Pasadena protest, Westridge’s presence as young activists was felt by other participants and covered by news organizations, including the Pasadena News. The following week, many high school students at neighboring Pasadena and greater Los Angeles schools participated in anti–ICE walkouts, and Westridge students participated in a teach-in at lunch.

Kristin C. said, “Now that we have gathered as a community, now that we’ve established this communication between different grades, and we’ve rallied everyone together, now we can take more action and encourage people to continue engaging civically. And so it doesn’t just end with the walkout. The walkout was to mobilize everyone together towards action.”

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(Katie L.)