On Friday, December 1, Dos Pueblos students walked to Girsh Park in support of their teachers getting higher salaries. A couple hundred students walked out during the school day, resulting in all those students being marked absent from their classes. Recently, it has been talked about how those students should not have those unexcused absences on their records because they are rightfully exercising the First Amendment and their right to protest peacefully.

A majority of students could not care less about the unexcused absence, an issue of such importance is worth missing a single day. A majority of the students did not even know that their absences were excused until hearing about it through the grapevine.

“It’s a bit of a relief to have it cleared but it might have made more of an impact to stay as a truancy to show that the students are willing to stand up for their teachers, even with repercussions,” said by Dos Pueblos junior who took part in the walk-out, Solas McGettigan.

As mentioned before, those absences were excused because those students were exercising their First Amendment right. In the education code it states that, “For the purpose of a middle school or high school pupil engaging in a civic or political event, as provided in subparagraph (B), provided that the pupil notifies the school ahead of the absence.” To put it briefly, if students notify the school of their absence ahead of time, the same way you would when calling in sick, the student is excused from their classes without any repercussions. 

“… the amount of change that will result from these actions is proportional to the amount of people who participate in them,” said by teacher at San Marcos, Mr. Clow.

Following in the footsteps of Dos Pueblos High School, San Marcos and Santa Barbara joined the cause with their own walk outs; San Marcos walked to Tucker’s Grove Park on December 11, while Santa Barbara took an extra step and had themselves walk straight to the district office on December 12.