In a massive display of support for teachers and a stunning rebuke of the Santa Barbara Unified School District administration, about 700 Dos Pueblos High School students walked out of school and marched to Girsh Park in Goleta on Friday morning.

They waved signs, shouted through megaphones and declared their support for their teachers, who are locked in a salary dispute with the district administration.

The students walked over the Glen Annie/Storke Road Bridge, crossed Hollister Avenue, passed McDonald’s and entered into Girsh Park, where the large crowd gathered in a circle and delivered impassioned speeches.

The walkout began at 9:49 a.m. Friday, and as the students’ voices boomed during their walk, a Falcon 9 rocket blasted from Vandenberg Space Force Base into the blue skies at 10:19 a.m, setting the stage for a dramatic day of student activism.

“Our teachers deserve fair and equal pay,” Aidan Myers, senior class president, said through a megaphone.

Two weeks ago, teachers closed their doors at lunchtime, preventing students from meeting in classrooms for clubs. Teachers are no longer tutoring during lunch hours. There are no more extracurricular and after-school events staffed by teachers.

Valeria Tiburcio Romo, ASB president, said students are in danger of seeing the winter formal and prom canceled if the salary dispute continues.

Teachers also have stopped writing letters of recommendation because the time to do so falls outside of the hours when they are paid.

“That means no more letters of recommendation,” Tiburcio Romo said. “How are we going to apply to top universities in the state of California?”

Tiburcio Romo said the situation is unfair, but that the blame belongs on the shoulders of the school district.

“The disrespect and carelessness in our district has gone on way too long,” Tiburcio Romo said.

The tone and tenor of the speeches and chants were strong and squarely directed at the administration and Superintendent Hilda Maldonado, who has been a focal point of criticism since she arrived in 2020. Since her hire, all but one of the cabinet members have left to pursue other jobs.

“What do a 17-year-old and Hilda Maldonado have in common?” Myers asked the crowd. “They both don’t know what it is like to raise a family on a teacher’s salary in Santa Barbara.”

Myers then shared that Maldonado earns more than $330,000 annually, which drew rousing boos from the students in the crowd.

“That’s a lot of money,” Myers said.

Maldonado told Noozhawk on Friday afternoon that she observed the beginning of the walkout. When the students arrived at Girsh Park, she was not present, and Lukas Ginder, activities coordinator, shouted, “Hilda Maldonado, you may walk with us, but we don’t stand with you.”

When a loud plane flew over Girsh Park, one of the students in the crowd remarked, “That’s where their travel budget goes.”

Maldonado in a statement to Noozhawk said she believes student voices are “vital.”

“We are committed to work in earnest with our labor partners to find solutions that support and value our employees while keeping our district fiscally strong,” she said.

Senior Finnegan Wright said it’s easy for the district to ignore students if they go to the board meeting individually, but a large turnout forces them to pay attention.

“When we come out, all of us here, and tell them they can’t mistreat our teachers, they have to listen,” Wright told the crowd.

He said that during his time at DP he has seen teacher after teacher leave.

“They aren’t being treated right by our district,” Wright said. “That’s talent leaving because our district doesn’t know how to treat teachers right. It’s unacceptable that we don’t create an environment for teachers to be good educators for our students.”

Wright said the students won’t let up and they will show up at board meetings to demand accountability.

“When the students act together, we get things done,” Wright said. “We can move mountains.”

Student Rouge Lindsey is new to Dos Pueblos this year but said teachers have made her feel like family. Teachers have opened their doors to her and given her support, Lindsey said.

“I have had teachers, I don’t even have their classes, but they have been nothing but nice to me,” Lindsey said. “And if it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t have the friends I have, the grades I have because they are so open to helping and so eager to help.”

Now that the doors are closed, “we have nowhere to go,” Lindsey said.

Teachers usually talk to students outside of class and help them in the ways they need, Lindsey said.

“Where is the money going?” Lindsey asked.

A student from the crowd shouted in response, “Maldonado, where is it?”

Students who walked off campus after first period were given unexcused absences or “truancies” for the day. Myers, the senior class president, said punishing students for exercising their rights is bogus.

He said he recently learned of California Education Code 48205, Section 12, which states that a student can miss school “for the purpose of a middle school or high school pupil engaging in a civic or political event … provided that the pupil notifies the school ahead of the absence.”

“This isn’t the only time that the district has defied legal code,” Myers said. “It’s very unprofessional, and I would like to think that the people who are supposed to be helping us and teaching us how to be better people, I would like to think they would lead us the right way. It shows ignorance and unprofessionalism.”

Principal Bill Woodard said: “If someone challenges the recording of an unexcused absence, they have the right to do so, and we will listen to them and apply the law/ed code.”