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Thousands of Santa Maria students skip class to protest Trump

February 17, 2017

More than 7,000 students were missing from Santa Maria elementary schools on Thursday while walkouts, strikes and business closures took place nationwide as part of the “Day Without Immigrants” — a protest against President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. In San Luis Obispo County, three downtown SLO restaurants shut their doors and students demonstrated at Paso Robles High School.

Santa Maria-Bonita School District administrators marked 7,302 students absent from 20 elementary schools. As a result, the district will lose nearly $400,000 in state funding. [KSBY]

In the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District, 22 percent of students were absent on Thursday. The district includes Santa Maria, Pioneer Valley, Righetti and Delta high schools. The high school district expects to lose about $100,000.

Jennifer Lopez, a Santa Maria High School junior, said, “We all come from undocumented families, and we are not going to school.”

In Guadalupe, 38 percent of students were absent from Mary Buren Elementary School, and 23 percent of students were absent from Kermit McKenzie Junior High.

Numerous businesses in the Santa Maria area closed on Thursday.

Three downtown San Luis Obispo restaurants — Big Sky Cafe, Novo and Luna Red — kept their doors shut. Big Sky Cafe announced Wednesday it would be participating in the day without immigrants. On Thursday, the owners of Novo and Luna Red released a statement saying their restaurants would be closed as well.

“We are a nation of immigrants. Restaurants are an industry of immigrants. Farm fresh food is not possible without the hard work of our farm labor workforce; locally sourced cuisine is not possible without the hands to craft it. In solidarity with a “day without immigrants” we have closed our businesses, @luna_red and @novorestaurant because they would not be possible without the declaration of the people who first grow the food and our teams who prepare it,” the statement said.

At Paso Robles High School, dozens of students protested during their lunch break. Video shows students chanting, “bridges not walls.”


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Oh sure,,, come to USA illegally get all kinds of free money , then protest by keeping your illegal children out of the free education and daycare your receiving cause you snuck into america . Entitlement has just been americas downfall , everyone who skipped school check their immigration status and send them back home where they can protest where they legally belong . What happened to common sense ????? .


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I wonder how many students/people would show up to protest Trump if it involved a positive action? Like cleaning up deteriorated neighborhoods or trash removal instead of just get out of school or work? Me thinks not many . . . .


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“We are a nation of immigrants.” We are also a nation of LAWS and 11,000,000 people are breaking them by coming here illegally. It is a mockery of the hard work and struggle may parents and grandparents went through to come here and become citizens.


Never had a chance to make things right? Guess again. Amnesty has been available multiple times but it’s better not to be a citizen and illegal – you get released from jail, don’t pay federal taxes but qualify for every welfare program in the book, free breakfast and lunch and education through college for your kids too. What a country. Don’t like it? Then leave. There are millions others who will gladly take your place.


Next time the school board begs you for a bond, remember, the parents allowed and encouraged their kids to skip school, resulting in a loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars in state Average Daily Attendance aid. They are not property owners so they don’t mind these taxes.


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I can’t stand Trump, but what the hell do you think you’re going to accomplish by keeping your kids hime from school? Is free public education something you don’t like? If Trump doesn’t allow you to attend school in grades K through 12, that’s one thing. But if you willfully do not attend, you’re an idiot.


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What a sad situation. Schools in the Santa Maria Valley forfeited about $500K in state funding because desperately ignorant parents and students felt they were “making a point” by keeping their kids out of school or by skipping school.


One has to wonder just who promotes this crap? Do they have the intellectual prowess to even comprehend the financial damage they are doing? There’s no upside folks — the money is gone and you all look like fools rather than righteous protestors.


I think the behavior of the “protestors” shines a light on a real problem — disregard for education and disregard for the prudent use of taxpayer funds.


Those that could least afford a lost day of school or a day’s wages were encouraged to do just that. They were told they would be “making a point.” The agitators assured them that their pathetic actions would drive change. All it did was make them look ignorant and deprive them of services paid for by taxpayer funds.


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Let’s translate this into reality: just in our area we are spending over $500,000 daily to educate those who are here illegally. The $500,000 is our tax dollars going to education; medical, subsistence, etc costs are over this amount. California is one of the highest taxed states, our legislature sure knows how to waste our money. There are legal ways to immigrate to our country, if you don’t want to take the legal avenue to citizenship then get out of my country.


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In fairness, it is extremely difficult to legally migrate from Mexico or Central America due to low quotas in relation to the number of people interested. This was not the case a century ago or more. I don’t like illegal immigration either but until reform of the system is done, I think it is inevitable.


If people are willing to pay much higher prices for low-end services and goods that are labor-intensive to produce (e.g. food), stopping illegal immigration is an honest goal. However, even then, there will be shortages as the jobs they now fill will require finding people willing to replace them even with much higher wages involved.


As for educational costs, I do suspect the figures given but even so, a kid in school is better than one on the streets. As long as illegal immigrants are here, it makes sense to try to make their kids into good productive people. The costs of imprisonment and crime are much higher than education.


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$400,000 is a big number…..Someone forgot to examine the consequences of this action.


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It’s a total of $500K per the article for the two different districts combined.


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I wonder how many new why, most probably wanted a day off.


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Guess Santa Maria School Districts are better off than San Luis Obispo’s. I would think $400,000 to be a considerable amount of money. After their hour of exoressing themselves I am sure they went home and worked on those homework assignments. Must be why their testing scores are so high in Santa Maria (NOT)…


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