West County High School (WCHS) students walked off campus Friday morning to boast WCHS pride and protest the school board’s vote to reinstate the Analy High School name.
Determined as ever and more organized than before, hundreds of students split into groups and marched with signs to different spots around downtown Sebastopol to rally with speeches and chants.
Organized by the new WCHS Activism Club, the club’s co-president KatieAnn Nguyen said a main goal of the walkout was to capture the board’s attention and put the naming of the consolidated high school back on the agenda in January.
This demonstration was the second walkout planned by students to publicly weigh in on board decisions many argue have dismissed student voices and broken promises trustees made to the high schoolers.
Teens took to the intersection of Main Street and Bodega Avenue, where 17-year-old Hannah Berkheimer addressed passing cars and pedestrians with a megaphone.
“Through all our contributions, our relationships formed with one another, we have created something extraordinary here at West County. It is not just a name anymore,” she said. “It signifies our beginning, the family we’ve created, the reconciliation of the loss of both schools.”
Next, the dozens of students headed to the Sebastopol Plaza. Student leaders stood by in neon safety vests and red and blue streamers drifted from the handrails up to the gazebo as speeches continued.
“The argument has always been ‘them versus us,’” said Nguyen, a senior. But as the semester went on, she declared from the main stage, students came to find their supposed Analy and El Molino rivals to be just like each other and formed a new community and identity. School became something to look forward to with new people and more extracurriculars, she said.
“It’s grown on you and you can’t deny that,” she said, stating that for many, school became something to look forward to with new people and more extracurriculars. Nguyen recounted the decision to reverse the school name, the first walkout that very next day where some may have cut class for the first time and acknowledged the weeks of planning for the Friday protest.
“You stand here because West County is worth the time,” she said. “Because West County is worth the blood, sweat and tears. Because West County is worth standing in the face of adversity for.”
Shortly after, the protesting students flowed through the Barlow and around the corner onto Morris Street, looping across the parking lot by Community Market back to the Sebastopol Plaza. Chanting continued on both sides of the street in front of the Whole Foods Market.
18-year-old Tyler Sword, a senior in the activism club, has been keeping track of the school board’s decision-making. He said the board tried to smooth over the loss of El Molino High School by telling students they could build a new community for a year and then pulled the rug out from under them by reinstating the Analy name.
“They’ve shown that they are susceptible to bully tactics,” he said of the board he views as having cracked under pressure from Analy alumni to act outside students’ best interests.
Student leaders decided to end the protest on a high note before 2 p.m. after striding to the district office and writing messages in chalk in support of keeping the West County name, Nguyen said. She recalled hearing from another student that Superintendent Toni Beal came outside to observe their demonstration.
WCHS teacher Eric Wycoff voiced his personal excitement attending the walkout as someone who teaches seniors about government, civil disobedience and other topics relevant to current events, from an international level to a local one. He added he arranged to attend some of the protest using off-work hours during the third period.
“This is not a world full of easy answers from people. It’s more complex,” Wycoff said, stating many of today’s employers don’t just hire people who are good at memorization or exams or who graduated from a specific school.
“So, a lot of these things we think make a good student are maybe not what makes a good citizen. I think we are facing a real direct example of how people can truly be active in their community. The kids are not divisive, they’re talking about compromise, they’re talking about using their voices,” he said.
Current high schoolers will graduate in the coming years, but junior Elizabeth Witteman said West County High was worth fighting for to acknowledge the different legacies of its community, since some students attend the school coming from a long line of El Molino alumni and families.
Aerwen Neigum, another junior, voiced the school name was worth keeping to maintain the histories of both Analy and El Molino and to acknowledge future students from different regions, such as the Russian River area.
