Senior Sarah Abu-Haija and her friends organized the walkout. The time and date were chosen to not interfere with instructional hours, using an enrichment period for the walkout. Enrichments take place on Fridays starting at 1:12 p.m until the end of the school day.

Faculty were aware of the walkout and some, including the principal, walked alongside the students for safety precautions.

“People said they would come but some ended up just dropping last minute for their enrichment,” said Abu-Haija.

However she was encouraged by the amount of positivity they received from the general public—either through honking, thumbs up, or rolling down their windows to give words of encouragement. 

There were only two instances of outright negative feedback; one put out a thumbs down while another stuck out their middle finger.

Abu Haija recalled her previous experience in a protest at Culbreth Middle School against the overturning of Roe vs Wade. “It was very messy and very disorganized,” she said. From this, she learned what not to do for a protest, making sure there was enough advertising for people to know it was happening.