“Good old high school student, “let’s ditch class and call it a protest”, heck if they play it right they might even get class credit. I bet most of the “protesters” never even met the kid.”
I doubt if these kids thought this up on their own. I’d bet money one of their “activist” teachers put this idea in their heads.
Or an activist parent, who’s not going to ditch class if mom says you should ditch class... and get your friends to join you even.
I think you underestimate the power of friendship and causes at such an age.
If it had happened to one of my friends back when I was in high school, we'd had the entire student body of 1200 strong marching. The Franciscans teachers would have given it their blessing. That was back in the early sixties.