By the hundreds, Modesto high school students stage districtwide anti-ICE walkout
High school students from across Modesto City Schools organized a walkout Thursday afternoon in protest of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and “the unfair cruelty ICE agents are using against families,” according to an Instagram post that students made. About 1,200 students participated, the school district estimated.
Teens from Beyer, Downey, Johansen and Davis High Schools planned to walk to the intersection of Briggsmore Avenue and Coffee Road. It was not immediately clear which schools were represented at the large gathering there.
School security personnel were present near Downey High and in downtown following the students.
Modesto High School students planned to walk to the Gallo Center for the Arts, Gregori High School students to Pelandale Avenue, and Enochs students to the intersection of Oakdale Road and Sylvan Avenue.
Students were encouraged by the protest organizers to bring anti-ICE posters, flags, signs and water, and to maintain a peaceful protest without interfering with traffic.
The walkout was mainly organized through a group chat on Instagram with students from the various schools.
Miah Hernandez, a junior at Downey, was among the organizers. “I’m trying to protect my community, I love my community so much,” she said, “and I just hope we all come together and express how we feel about this.”
She added, “I want people to know it’s not a one-time thing. We’re planning more, we’re doing more, we’re trying to provide for the community.
“For me, it’s important because I am a first-generation child in this country,” said another of the organizers, Beyer senior Audrina Urias. “I do want to go into immigration law later on. It’s important to have our voices heard [as] the younger generation who are coming up and able to be voting …”
Fellow Beyer senior Anahy Diaz added, “Seeing people’s families get torn apart was really heartbreaking to me because I try to put myself in their shoes. Like if that was me and my family, I don’t know how I’d be able to bear it. So I wanted to speak for the people who can’t.”
Airielle Moberly’s kids are homeschooled but still came out to protest with their friends. She acted as crossing guard, helping the students safely cross streets.
Moberly said it’s important, especially for the seniors who will soon be able to vote during the midterms, to be aware of — and active in — what’s going on.
“It’s no longer … a left or right, it’s a right or wrong,” she said. “I’m proud of the [kids].”
Beyer junior Brett Bird, whose mother taught immigrant and refugee students for 20 years at Davis High, said he got to see firsthand the impact immigrants have on the country. “They’re just humans like us, just trying to have a better opportunity in life,” he said.
Gabriela Garcia, senior at Beyer, said she spoke to some students before the walkout who said there’d be only eight students participating. “I said, ‘I don’t care if it’s only eight people walking out, as long as I’m one of those people walking out,’” Garcia said.
She said it was heartwarming to see hundreds of students from Downey High join the protest.
Candidate impressed: ‘This is massive’
Michael Masuda, who is running for Congress in California’s 5th district, made a speech at the Coffee Road gathering near Memorial Medical Center.
He told The Bee that he heard about the walkout from a teenager on his team and that he wanted to get the youth involved. While he’s seen other walkouts, he admitted he did not expect this one to be so big.
“This is massive,” Masuda said. “This is free speech happening right now.”
He encouraged young people to register to vote — even if they’re 16 and 17, as they can preregister — and to volunteer for political campaigns.
West Modesto represented
Modesto City Schools had more than 2,500 English learners during the 2024-25 school year, indicating a significant population of students who come from an immigrant background.
At Modesto High School, over 20% of the students are Spanish-speaking English learners, according to the California Department of Education.
Jennifer Soto, a 17-year-old junior at MHS, spent the first six years of her life in Mexico after being born in the United States. She explained the difficulty, for her and her parents, of learning a new language and culture while also dealing with discrimination that came with being an immigrant.
Now what her family experiences is fear, Soto said. “When seeing all that (news) on TV, it’s just like we’re humans, too. We’re not animals, we’re not aliens. It’s not something that should be happening in this country,” she said.
Eden Wilkinson, who organized MHS’s walkout Thursday, said their message is clear: ICE is an oppressive agency no different than Nazi Germany’s secret police, the Gestapo.
“People, immigrants, are what make America great,” said Wilkinson. “So getting rid of them, and murdering people in the street, is just completely unacceptable. It’s fascism.”
Potential consequences
Some students told The Bee that they were threatened with truancy or would not be able to participate in future extracurricular activities if they participated in the walkout.
According to an email Modesto City Schools sent to parents regarding the walkout, “If a student chooses to leave class or campus without authorization, standard attendance and supervision procedures will apply.”
“While the circumstances of an absence from school can vary, students who do not have prior authorization to leave campus can expect their absence to be ‘unexcused,’” the email continued.
According to SB 955 signed into law in 2022, middle and high school students are allowed one excused absence for participating in civic engagement activities with advance parental permission.
This story was originally published February 5, 2026 at 2:09 PM.
