Thousand Oaks High School
LANCER The
Volume LX, Issue 5 - March 24, 2026
2323 N. Moorpark Rd. Thousand Oaks, CA 91360
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War leaves community conflicted JOEY GOODNIGHT Editor-in-Chief Early on the morning of Feb. 28 the U.S. and Israel launched a dual attack on Iran, targeting key government and military sites while also incidentally hitting multiple civilian buildings. The attack resulted in over 5000 casualties; roughly 500 were nonmilitary civilians and over 100 were children, most of which were killed in the bombing on Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ elementary school. The attack also resulted in the death of many high level officials in the Iranian government, including Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, and Ali Larijani, the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council. In President Donald Trump’s first press release following the attack, he justified the bombing as having three key goals: destroying Iran’s missile capabilities, preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons and giving the Iran’s people the chance to “take control of their own government.” This reasoning has
been questioned by multiple outside and internal sources. Supposedly, Trump’s goal was to support the anti-regime movement in Iran, but it appears from internal sources that the strikes have only worsened the conditions for Iranian people, with the military upping their surveillance of citizens and cracking down even harder on protesters under the justification of protecting the country from possible Israeli terrorists. Iranian communities in the U.S. are having mixed reactions to the death of the supreme leader and the attacks on Iran, with some arguing that the attacks might finally result in long overdue regime change, while others fear that the conflict will only result in more pain and suffering for the people of Iran. One thing that everyone in the Iranian community can agree on is their fear for the lives and wellbeing of their extended families still living in Iran. Thousand Oaks High School senior Shiva Sadri explained why these events hit close to home for her and her family.
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“I’m Iranian, and both of my parents are from Iran,” Sadri said, “so when we first heard that the Supreme Leader had died in the attack, we were cheering–we were very excited at first. The supreme leader led to the death of so many innocent people. Obviously he is not all the regime, and his death alone won’t bring down the entire
“Iranians have been revolting for so long...but then it hit us too, what’s gonna happen to the rest of our family?” SHIVA SADRI
regime, but it definitely opened up hope for so many people.” The supreme leader of Iran had been abusing his people since 1989 when he came into power, suppressing the rights of women and religious minorities, while turning Iran into an Islamic theocracy. “Iranians have been revolting for so long, and desperately trying to
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make change,” Sadri said. “So there was obviously an initial hopeful excitement, but then it hit us too, what’s gonna happen to the rest of our family?” Many Iranian families, just like the Sadris, are spending the Persian New Year thinking about their loved ones back home, and wishing that there was a way to get them out of the conflict happening in their home country. “One of my biggest memories as a child was asking my parents when the rest of my family would get to come to the U.S.,” Sadri said. “I could never really understand why I couldn’t go visit them and they couldn’t come visit me. My parents always told me not to worry, that [the family members] had applied for their green cards. But they have been waiting for their green cards for years, and all I can do is be grateful that they aren’t in a situation where their lives are at risk because they were part of a political organization or if they were a religious minority. But even then, they aren’t safe there.” Her family, like many families
in our local community, have a complicated relationship with the current war effort in Iran but Sadri and her family choose to stay hopeful. “We’re definitely hearing a lot of people say that they won’t be participating in the festivities of Persian New Year, because it just feels insensitive to what’s happening over there right now,” Sadri said. “My family’s perspective is that in times of misfortune, we have to stay hopeful,” Sadri said. “For Chaharshanbe Suri, the day where we let go of all of the bad from the past year so that we can embrace the year ahead of us, my mom and I made sure to celebrate. Even though it was still sad, we put all of our hopes into prayers for the Iranian people.” With so much uncertainty about the war, not just the future of the regime but the future for so many families of Iranian immigrants in our community, all we can do is maintain hope that this war will somehow lead to improvements for the people in Iran.
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