On Friday, February 12th, 2026, during last period, there was a student-led walkout at Pleasant Valley High School. Like many other schools in the country, the protest was held against the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), a program intended to enforce immigration laws in the United States and endorsed by President Trump. ICE has been detaining undocumented immigrants all over America. Taking inspiration from other student-led protests across the nation, students at Pleasant Valley decided to take a stand.
A freshman student named Jerra Mullen was interviewed and asked why she got involved with the protest. She responded, “The thing that made me get involved was because many people wanted change. Because of the way ICE is doing things, it is in no way making America better.” When asked what the message she wishes to convey with the protest was, she replied “The message of this protest is to hopefully make a difference. Every voice matters, and no matter how much hate we got, I’m still proud we used our voices for others who cannot. This isn’t just about taking immigrants out of the country, it’s about humanity and human decency.” After interviewing Jerra, it became clear she held a strong passion behind her reasons for joining the walkout, emphasizing her belief that every voice matters and students have the right to stand up for what they believe in.
Inspired by anti-ICE protests taking place across the country in January, a group of students began to communicate with other peers who helped them with organizing and planning the protest. Students created digital posters to be shared on social media platforms online with information about the walkout in order to further spread the word. As news of the coming walkout spread throughout campus, PV’s administration sent out an informational email to notify parents of the protest and to encourage students to discuss the topic with their families. Mr. Whittaker and the administration office had students’ best interests in mind, neither encouraging nor discouraging the student protest, but rather strongly emphasizing the importance of participating within school guidelines and remaining as safe and responsible as possible.
At 2:00pm, around 150 PVHS students congregated in the Valhalla Quad. Announcements were made about protest etiquette, such as being respectful and to not start any verbal or physical confrontation. After these announcements, the 150 students exited the school gates and walked down the sidewalk with posters. On these posters, phrases were written, saying things such as: “ICE OUT”, “No one is illegal on stolen land”, and “Immigrants built America”. Along with the posters, students led chants such as “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here” and “ICE out.” Passing cars also honked to show their support, with many people waving at the students and cheering from their windows. The positive energy and support from students, as well as fellow residents of Chico, brought the spirit of peaceful protest to life.
While the majority of the walkout remained peaceful, PV students faced challenges. Around 3:00pm, as students were gathered at the intersection, a PV parent parked on the crosswalk while the walking signal was still flashing, and exited their car while playing the song “Ice Ice Baby,” dancing in the street and filming protesting students. Another PV parent who was chaperoning the walkout rushed to the scene and opened the parent’s car door, telling them to drive away. While this was happening, students took action and formed a crowd, telling the parent to drive away because they were disrupting and escalating a peaceful protest. The rally met a point of tension at this point; there were some inappropriate actions from an individual who threw a cup of lemonade at the car of the parent who had parked on the crosswalk. Despite this, no damage was done to the car, nor was the parent hurt.
While the walkout was still being organized at PV, word of a student-led protest had reached the Vikings’ rival school, Chico High. The news inspired many Chico high students to join Pleasant Valley in protest against ICE and to coordinate a school walkout on the same day. The Saga spoke with three students from Chico High; Kenya Rangel, a main organizer of the Chico High walkout, shared her thoughts on the importance of students to recognize political actions being made around us. “I believe that it is important for students to recognize political actions because I believe that people tend to normalize… basically saying that us students don’t have a voice. I also believe that if we don’t pay attention to political matters, know and learn, and fight for them then where would we be? We all have a voice and I believe we should use it to fight for those who can’t, even if you’re misjudged for it.”
Lisset Lopez, another Chico High student, shared how she got involved with the successful protest at Chico High. “I am friends with the people who organized the protest. As soon as I found out about it, I informed people and asked if they would also spread the word and suggested other people [who would want] to participate in it,” demonstrating the power of a single voice and what it can do to bring a crowd of people together.
Lastly, the Saga interviewed Jessica Covarrubias, another Chico High student, about how they were treated walking downtown and around Chico State’s campus. She mentioned “Many of them [the students] ended up going back to class after the walkout. We protested from Chico High to Chico State’s campus, and even towards downtown. It went pretty well. Lots of students were pretty respectful about this, thankfully, and besides the hate from elders, we did in fact have support from those driving by and showing support by honking and showing us that we were being seen.” After interviewing all of these amazing Chico High students, it is amazing to see two rival high schools showing up for the same purpose and the power young people like highschoolers can have when they come together as one.
The protest at Pleasant Valley and its twin protest at Chico High emphasized the importance of student voices and how much a singular, organized idea can impact a community. This protest, as well as many others across the nation, is a reminder to students from all grades and schools that each individual person has a voice. These protests serve as a reminder on how one voice can go a long way. As students, everyone’s voice matters and each student has the ability to stand up for what they believe in, which is a lesson that hundreds of students protesting across Chico have demonstrated.
