Seattle students join nationwide school walkout to protest Trump presidency

Students at high schools across Seattle walked out of class Monday to protest the election of Donald Trump. Many of them then marched to Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill.

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Charlie Funk, 15, was one of several hundred students who poured out of the school doors at Roosevelt High School at 1:30 p.m.

Funk said the outcome of the election made him disappointed in America, and walking out of school with his classmates felt like one way to express that.

Funk: "It’s giving us a voice since we can’t vote for who we want as president. So it gives us a vote to talk about it and stuff and express our feelings."

Students chanted "Not my president" and "My body, my choice." They held signs with slogans like "Love Trumps Hate," and some held an upside-down American flag.

Rohan Ramdin, 15, marched alongside a friend who was making a sign as she walked reading "Give peace a chance."

Ramdin: "I don’t apply to a lot of the groups that are being oppressed, but I’d say right now the most important thing in this is a crowd, so I’m here to add to the crowd, to add to the amount of bodies that are here, so more people pay attention to the fact that a lot of people are being oppressed and a lot of people are having a hard time in America right now."

School district spokesman Luke Duecy said about 5,000 students walked out across the city. Duecy said they would receive unexcused absences for walking out, but would not be punished.

Teachers were not allowed to walk out.