STARTING OFF HIGH SCHOOL as an idyllic couple, Katherine Rice and her boyfriend were always together at Santa Teresa High School in San Jose. They walked around the sprawling campus holding hands and attended dances and other school events with each other. During football games, Rice would paint her boyfriend’s jersey number on her face.They were the picture-perfect couple.
And then immigration politics came into the picture. She belongs to a liberal Democrat family. His is conservative Republican.
On a warm and sunny day in January, dozens of students staged a walkout to protest the recent immigration crackdowns by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in the Bay Area.
Not knowing his far-right views at the time, Rice invited her boyfriend, who requested anonymity for this report. His response shocked her.
“People need to let ICE do their job and stop interfering,” he said he told her.
After she told her liberal friends about the situation, Rice was surprised by their even harsher reaction than hers.
“They went from thinking he was a good guy to, like, hating him,” she said.
“I cannot be in a relationship with a Trump supporter.”
— Katherine Rice, Santa Teresa High School student
Rice and her boyfriend soon found their political differences too deep to overcome. They broke up.
“I cannot be in a relationship with a Trump supporter,” she said.
According to the 2025 Harvard Youth Poll, “trust between young Americans, ages 18-29 is collapsing. A significant share do not assume good intentions from people who see the world differently.” The report said 46% of Democrats and 54% of Republicans say they avoid political discussions out of concern for how people might respond. And 48% of Republicans and 30% of Democrats feel judged for their political views.
Politics shapes student friend groups
Teens are also feeling the effects of this political divide. At St. Francis High School In Mountain View, where liberal-leaning students outnumber conservatives, students who lean right said they often feel undermined by their peers.
Carlo Blank, 16, wore a MAGA hat along with 3 of his conservative friends at the Catholic school’s recent protest against ICE.
“People were staring at me and whispering about me,” Blank said. “They gave me looks of disapproval and said things to me like, ‘yeah, you’re stupid.’”
While the liberal students could freely share their beliefs, Blank felt shunned for expressing his.
“The division in America has gotten out of hand,” he said. “I think most of the time now, if people have different political views, they won’t even consider being with each other.”
How social media deepens the divide
Grace Cummins, a 17-year-old at Santa Teresa, blamed social media for worsening the political divide among teens.
“The media also allows us to get more intense with our views and it gives people who feel powerless a way to feel like they’re doing something by posting their views.”
Jayson Chang, an Advanced Placement Human Geography teacher at Santa Teresa, notices that many students’ beliefs are heavily influenced by the media they consume.
“I feel like, especially compared to when I first started teaching, social media has played a much, much larger role these days and people end up falling in echo chambers.”
When handling political differences, Chang advises students to look at the bigger picture.
“Be open-minded, be patient and be empathetic.”
Sienna Feliciano is a member of the class of 2027 at Santa Teresa High School in San Jose.
Editor’s note: This story is part of the annual Mosaic Journalism Program for Bay Area high school students, an intensive course in journalism. Students in the program report and photograph stories under the guidance of professional journalists.