Hundreds of students at Venice High School marched out of class Tuesday afternoon to protest immigration enforcement and demand stronger protections for their classmates and families. Around 12:35 p.m., the crowd of about 200 filled Venice Boulevard near Beethoven Street, chanting “Stop ICE” and “Protect Immigrant Families” as they carried handmade signs and linked arms. LAPD officers from the Pacific station monitored from a distance but made no arrests.

The demonstration was part of a larger wave of youth-led actions across Los Angeles responding to recent ICE raids, including one that took place just over a mile from campus. “There used to be a time when schools were safe havens . . . and it’s been really heartbreaking to see that transition,” Principal Yavonka Hairston-Truitt told The Oarsman, Venice High’s student newspaper.

This week’s walkout follows earlier student protests in February, when Venice students joined citywide demonstrations against deportations and the rollback of sanctuary protections. Those earlier actions were organized by M.E.Ch.A. de Venice and VHS for Student Liberation, which called on students to “show the strength of communities, to defend and protect when rights are systematically taken away, and to manifest change.”

Senior organizer Marina Aguayo said at the time that she wanted the school to “make it clear to students when they are safe and acknowledge when they aren’t safe.” Her classmate Gilbert Lopez, who helped lead the February walkouts, reflected that “student movements have the capability to create tangible change, but it isn’t something that will happen after the first try. It is something that should be carried on . . . to keep the movement alive for future students.”

In the months since those first protests, teachers and community members have stepped up efforts to protect students. As we reported in August, volunteer safety patrols now operate around schools across the Westside, including Venice High. Trained through workshops led by Union del Barrio, these teachers and neighbors conduct early-morning patrols to ensure students’ safe passage and keep watch for immigration enforcement vehicles. Spanish teacher Dr. Angela Fajardo said she’s proud of her colleagues for showing up before dawn: “They just want to make sure our students get to class safely.”

The district has also expanded its own efforts. LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho has pledged that federal agents will not be allowed onto campuses without a warrant, a policy now backed by state law. The district rerouted bus lines to avoid areas where enforcement activity has been reported and launched its “We Are One” campaign to educate families about their rights.

For many Venice students, those changes are a step in the right direction but not enough. They want clear sanctuary commitments from the district, more transparency when enforcement activity happens nearby, and real investment in community-based safety rather than policing and surveillance. Above all, they want schools to remain safe places for every student, regardless of immigration status.

That demand for protection echoes a long tradition at Venice High, which participated in the East L.A. Walkouts of the 1960s. “Students are the reason why we have these social justice movements,” social studies teacher Isabel Cortes told The Oarsman. “When they see an injustice, when they’re fired up, when they create a collective to fight and organize, when they create solidarity movements with unions and with educators and with community members and with parents . . . that is what’s powerful.”