Hundreds of students walked out of Oakland’s Skyline High School today to protest gun violence. The walkout comes after an incident last Wednesday, Nov. 12, when the school went into lockdown after a teenager was shot on campus. Two students were arrested and charged in the incident, each of whom were in possession of “ghost guns,” according to the Oakland Police Department. OPD said the injured student is expected to recover.

A call to action posted by students said they were walking out to stand against “Unsafe conditions,” “a lack of student protection,” and the “administration failing to take action.”

“We deserve better,” the announcement reads. “We deserve to feel safe. We deserve to be heard.”

Skyline students march down Skyline Boulevard. Credit: Jose Fermoso/The Oaklandside

Last Wednesday, Assistant Police Chief James Beere said officers received calls just before 1:30 p.m. of a shooting at the campus. He said police offered medical assistance to a minor victim before transporting him to a local hospital.

Two suspects were arrested, he said, and police recovered two firearms. Beere did not say if any of the people involved were students, but confirmed they were all minors.

“The violence that we’re seeing in schools, in the city and nationwide is disgusting,” Beere said. “You know, these are our children, and having access to firearms alone is unbelievable, let alone that violence is occurring in and around our campuses.”

Skyline High’s principal, Rebecca Huang, has called a town meeting for later this week to address student, parent, and staff concerns.

Last Wednesday’s lockdown was the third of the school year for students at Skyline, a large public high school in the Oakland hills. On Sept. 26, students were sent into secure protocol when OPD responded to a report of a student on campus with a firearm; that report was determined to be false. Then on Nov. 4, students were put into secure protocol a second time as, Skyline said, the school’s security team was seeking to remove “an upset parent on campus.”

Skyline has experienced a number of violent incidents in the last few years, including a stabbing that injured a student in 2022, a shooting in 2023 with no apparent victims, and a shooting after graduation in 2024 that injured three people.

This is a developing story and The Oaklandside has reporters at the campus; check back for updates.

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