Kaila White

The Republic | azcentral.com

About 200 students walked out of Trevor G. Browne High School in the Maryvale neighborhood in Phoenix Friday afternoon to protest Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

More than a dozen Muslim students from North High School, about 20 minutes away, joined them, fasting for the day as a way to ask God to help their cause. Phoenix City Councilman Michael Nowakowski and Maria Elena Durazo, a labor-union leader from Los Angeles, also participated.

The teens, many wearing shirts and carrying signs that said “Adios Arpaio” and “Defeat Trump," gathered at nearby El Oso Park to protest the oppression and offense they say they feel on the national, county and even school level.

The vast majority of Trevor G. Browne students belong to minority groups, and the rally was a chance to speak out about political rhetoric against immigrants, Latinos, Mexicans, Muslims and LGBT people.

'We belong here'

North High junior Faisa Ahmed said she fasted for two days to show solidarity with Trevor G. Browne students and to show that "Latinos and Muslims can actually work together and that one day we will live in harmony."

During a short rally in the park, she stood on a bench and spoke into a microphone to address the crowd of students.

"I’m sick and tired of people like Arpaio and Donald Trump discriminating (against) us. I’m tired of them saying that Muslims are terrorists and Mexicans are rapists because that’s not true. They don’t know us," she said to cheers.

"I want to show them that we’re also educated and that we’re better than what they say we are. Just because our parents don’t have papers does not mean we don’t belong here. We belong here," Ahmed yelled as people clapped and shouted.

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Alleged discrimination at the school

During the rally, many referenced and cheered in support of Brandon Hernandez-Rodriguez, a 16-year-old Trevor G. Browne student who said he received a referral Monday for using the boys' restroom because he is gay and wears makeup.

He often uses the girls' restroom when he is with female friends "just 'cause it’s easier," but one time during class decided to use the boys' restroom because no one was around. He said when he exited the restroom, a female security guard asked what he was doing.

"She asked me if I was using the boys' or the girls’ bathroom and I said the boys'. When I said that, she took down my ID number and my name and she took the bathroom pass and said I’m ‘not allowed to do that.’ When I said why not, she said, ‘Because that’s not right.’

"I don’t understand. ... I’d understand if maybe another student felt uncomfortable with me using the girls' bathroom or even the boys' bathroom, but there was no one there," he said. "I don’t understand the reason why I got a referral."

Students understand and support him, he said, including Cynthia Montes, a 16-year-old Trevor G. Browne student.

"What bathroom is he supposed to use? I have anger inside of me because of that. I just want to cry because it’s not fair. For students like them having to suffer inside of school, that’s discrimination and I think that’s not right," she said. "I’m doing this for him and for equality in bathrooms at schools."

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Attention from labor-union leaders

Case Action, which bills itself as a group "fighting for social justice in Central Arizona," helped organize the protest, along with the national labor union Unite Here, of which Maria Elena Durazo is a vice president.

The Los Angeles Times called Durazo a "powerful Los Angeles County labor leader who helped elect politicians, boost wages and push through major development projects." She now works to promote civil rights and immigration reform.

"These students are also in the same community that immigrant workers and hotel workers and food service workers are," Durazo said. "I am inspired by what they do, and our union wanted to do everything we could to support them as they made this decision to walk out."

Some students stayed after the rally to canvass the neighborhood, encouraging people to vote.

The Republic reached out for comment to the Phoenix Union High School District, which includes Trevor G. Browne and North, but did not immediately hear back

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