Hundreds of students walked off Oakland’s Skyline High School campus on Tuesday, calling for the school and district to do more to counter gun violence.
They say the Oakland Unified School District needs to provide more education and better support for students who don’t feel safe on campus after shootings at two Oakland schools last week.
“Our school is not protected,” junior Kennedy Wiley said. “We need the district to help us.”
Last Wednesday, a Skyline student was shot during the school day, and two other young people were arrested in connection with the altercation.
Just a day later, Oakland’s beloved Laney College Athletic Director John Beam was shot and killed on the junior college campus.
Beam, who was featured on the final season of Netflix’s docuseries Last Chance U while he was coaching the Laney Eagles, began his Oakland career at Skyline, leading the school’s football team to 15 championships over 17 years, according to OUSD Superintendent Denise Saddler.
At 11 a.m. Tuesday, Skyline students streamed out of the hilly campus onto Skyline Road, dressed in red and holding posters scribbled with the slogans “Books not Bullets” and “Make School Safe.”
They were joined by students from other OUSD sites, including Oakland Technical High School, where a coordinated walkout was cancelled over concerns from administrators.
OTHS freshman Maya Williams, who came to Skyline’s walkout with her classmates to show their support, said her school administration’s actions were “understandable, because there’s a lot of reckless drivers out there.”
Skyline administrators urged the walkout’s participants to go to the campus library instead of leaving the site, students said, but many still left — either taking cars or walking in a pack about a mile from the school to the Safeway on Redwood Street in the Oakland Hills.
Last week’s shooting at Skyline was the high school’s third in the last three years. A shooting after its 2024 graduation ceremony injured three people.
In 2023, a shooting with no victims led the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office to charge three young people with assault and firearm charges.
Police said both of the people who were arrested and charged in the incident possessed ghost guns, or untraceable firearms that are put together either from separate pieces or a kit.
Although OUSD condemned the incident, students, parents and teachers have called for increased transparency from the district, which they don’t feel provided enough real-time information when the shooting occurred, or even after.
“We were waiting for some sort of clear communication from the school and the district and city leaders about what had happened and next steps,” said Laura Blair, whose daughter is a freshman at Skyline.
“We’re only really hearing from students,” Blair said.
Skyline plans to host a town hall meeting on Thursday with OUSD leadership and Oakland Police, where Blair said she hopes they’ll share more information about how the school will improve campus safety.
During Tuesday’s walkout, junior Katherine Naranjo said their goal was to “just get our voice out,” and build a stronger community.
“One where the students are more capable of coming out and reaching for help when they feel like they need it,” she said.
To learn more about how we use your information, please read our privacy policy.