Adults who attended Clovis ICE student protest sought to maintain safety, volunteer says
Community members and parents who attended Tuesday’s student walkout in Clovis said they played no role in organizing the protest and saw adult counterprotesters aggressively confront and hurl insults at student protesters.
Clovis police announced Wednesday evening it will pursue misdemeanor charges against adults who attended Tuesday’s student walkout. The police department and Clovis Unified School District said in a joint statement they observed multiple adults “actively encouraging, organizing, and facilitating students leaving school without authorization.”
Parents and a community organizer who attended the protest said they walked alongside the students to help ensure their safety.
Alfred Aldrete, a member of the Fresno Resistance group, told The Bee that student organizers reached out to the group on Instagram before the walkout asking for volunteers to escort students during the protest. The Fresno Resistance has organized anti-ICE demonstrations in the Fresno area, though it was not involved in organizing Tuesday’s student protest, Aldrete told The Fresno Bee.
Aldrete said he saw about 20 adults, including parents, walk with student protesters shortly after he arrived outside Buchanan High School about 10:15 a.m. Tuesday. He said the adults at the protest helped students safely cross intersections along their 4.5-mile march to the Costco near Clovis and Shaw avenues. Some adults provided students with snacks and water, he said.
“The only thing that we had a part in was just making sure that they were able to convey their message safely and that they were traveling safely,” Aldrete said. “That was their message, and we have nothing to do with it. As young individuals, they are just as important to the community as any other adults.”
Clovis Unified officials said no one from the district was present at the walkout because the event was not sanctioned by, overseen, or in any way authorized by the school district.
Officers on patrol were at the protest and police used a network of 500 city surveillance cameras and its Camera-On-Wheels vehicle to record the protest.
The Clovis Police Department said Wednesday that it identified two adults at the protest and is reviewing footage to identify others who attended to pursue misdemeanor charges for allegedly contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Aldrete said patrol officers pulled him aside during the protest and recorded his ID.
“They said they had received multiple complaints that I was in the street and getting in the bike lane and kind of disrupting traffic, to which I completely thought was ridiculous, and a lot of the students who I was with voiced their opinions,” Aldrete said.
The group of students was harassed by counterprotesters at the intersection of Shaw and Clovis avenues, Aldrete said, adding one man used a megaphone to shout obscenities and crude messages at the students. In a 13-second video posted on social media, a man is seen tossing a water bottle toward the students. Aldrate said he stood between the counter-protester and the students to deescalate the encounter.
Aldrete said officers who were on patrol during the protest did not intervene in the counterprotesters’ confrontation with students.
“A lot of kids have mixed emotions about who Clovis PD is protecting, because on their first-hand view, Clovis PD is stopping someone who was trying to help them out,” Aldrete said of his encounter with police that students witnessed. “But the police didn’t stop any of these other individuals who were harassing them or yelling obscenities or driving by, trying to slog them out, or just putting a damper on their days.”
As Tuesday’s protest drew to a close, Aldrete said that a student protester was singled out by a man who got out of his car after driving by the protest. Aldrete said the man hurled insults at the student, prompting bystanders to call Clovis police. The student was afraid and left before the police arrived, he said.
“In that instance, we’re like, where was Clovis PD? Where were their 500 cameras? Where was their surveillance?” Aldrete said. “How are they protecting the students? In that case, they weren’t, so that leaves us really frustrated.”
This story was originally published February 12, 2026 at 6:58 PM.
