Student Leadership Forum

March 9th, 2026, Redwood High school held a leadership forum for more than 100 students from clubs, sports teams, and leadership groups across campus that came together to talk about current issues and solutions.

By: Ariana Lopez Salguero

The forum, held in the gym, aimed to give students a chance to discuss concerns about campus culture and suggest ways to improve the school environment.

Students were divided into small groups where they talked about issues such as respect on campus, student mental health, and whether students feel heard by administrators.

Overall the time students spent in the gym was productive, admin, other teachers, and counselors were able to hear inputs that students gave.

ASB Director Pete Siqueiros was an adult in one of the groups and shared some of the problems students brought up that believed they needed more attention.

Mr. Siqueiros said, “My perspective of the forum is, creating a culture where every student feels welcome. Every student feels safe. Every student feels like they’re part of our campus in a way of whether it’s them, attending events or just attending class.”

“The forum was for our leaders, our student leaders to speak up and let us know, what we can do as a staff, as a school to make sure that every student feels heard, feels safe,” said Mr. Siqueiros.

With solutions and awareness, Mr. Siqueiros hopes the outcome will lead to students to attend events, and speak on what they want to truly say.

Whether that be an issue, a problem that may be occurring on campus, that way a plan can be put in place so it can be resolved.

Redwood High school’s principal, Dr. Brandon Gridiron was especially content with the ideas that students generated.

Dr. Gridiron said the idea for the event came from conversations with students in the weeks following the incident.

“The idea actually came from student voice,” Gridiron said. “Students wanted to come together to be a part of the solution and address the climate and culture of our school

Gridiron acknowledged that the recent incident played a role in the timing of the event.

“We can’t shy away from the fact that what happened impacted our school,” he said. “That created a catalyst to say we need to do something now because kids are impacted.”

The main focus was to get “over 100 plus students from various clubs, sports, different organizations across our campus,” in order to get authentic feedback,” said Dr. Gridiron

“But I think that at the end of the day there’s no better time than now when kids are saying they want to share their voice an created change.Giving students an opportunity to share their voice, and create space for this is really important, I don’t think we do it enough.”

Dr. Gridiron, Redwood High School Principal

As of now Redwood’s staff is now in the process of synthesizing and analyzing all of the data that was shared that day.

To identify things to fix and things to enhance, and then share that information with the committee of students that participated and shared with the staff, share with family, and then be able to start working towards action to address what’s needs to be addressed.

ASB President Sophia Diaz, ’26 said the forum was also meant to bring different student leaders together in one space.

“We wanted to bring all leaders across campus into one area so we could exchange ideas,” Diaz said. “That helps admin know what they can do on their side, but it also helps ASB know what we can do on the student side.”

During discussions, students talked about the resources available to address harmful language or behavior on campus and what additional support students might need.

“One of the questions was what resources currently exist on our campus to support students who feel like harmful language or behavior is happening,” said Mr. Siquieros.

Students also focused on solutions. Some groups suggested creating more opportunities for students to share concerns and expanding ways to highlight different student groups on campus.

“One idea was that ASB could highlight different groups on campus more often,” Diaz said. “We highlight football and athletes a lot, but we could also highlight bikers, theater kids, and other groups.”

Students who attended the forum said it created space for honest conversation, although opinions about the event varied.

“I think the purpose was so the administration could find ways to make the school a safer place,” said Samantha Sanchez, ’27, a student participant.

Sanchez said some students also expressed frustration that when they report issues, “nothing ever happens.”

Other students suggested continuing the forums in the future.

Sanchez said her group proposed holding similar meetings monthly and allowing different students to attend each time so more voices could be heard.

Even students who did not attend said conversations like these are important for the campus.

“I think the biggest culture issue is that people stay in their own groups,” said student Cami Lewis, ’27. “Everybody kind of sticks with their clique instead of mixing with different people.”

Lewis emphasized the importance of conversations such as ones that were held at the forum, “It’s very important that every student feels welcomed and supported on this campus,” said Lewis. “I think that conversations like that are great ways to make kids feel better going here.”

Administrators said the ideas from the forum will now be reviewed and turned into possible action steps.

One of Redwoods assistant principals, Elizabeth Vaca said, “We were able to capture all of the thoughts and action plans from students. Now we’ll review that feedback and identify where we should start and what our next steps will be.”

For organizers, the forum was meant to be more than a single conversation. School leaders say they hope it becomes a starting point for ongoing discussions about how students and staff can work together to improve the culture at Redwood.

Tags: ASB, event, leaders, rangers, Redwood, redwood gigantea, redwood high school, redwood journalism, redwood rangers, redwood sports, rhs, students, visalia ca