Algebra, English, and Activism: Teachers at Middle and High School Instruct Students How To Protest ICE

Encouraged by teachers and school officials — and in some cases being personally escorted by administrators, middle and high school students across the nation are cutting classes to attend protests against Immigrations and Customs Enforcement actions, as parents fear events could turn violent.Two of the nation’s largest teachers unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, are openly backing anti‑ICE protests, calling federal agents “violent and destructive” and telling educators to “stop the authoritarian turn” in U.S. politics. Multiple teacher unions have organized or co‑organized “ICE out of schools” and “Melt the ICE” marches, rallies, and walkouts. Teachers are asked to wear coordinated colors, attend trainings, and join protests in solidarity with Minnesota and other hotspots where rallies have turned violent. As a result, many students are taking their cues from their teachers and scheduling school walkouts. In Baltimore County, Maryland, for instance, students at Hereford High School passed around a flyer telling students to make signs and wear warm clothes to participate in a countywide schools walkout on Friday morning, spurring one state delegate, Nino Mangione, to object.“People are certainly welcome to protest (misguided or not), express their opinions etc. but these activities should be reserved for outside the school system,” Mr. Mangione wrote in a letter to Superintendent Myriam Rogers on Thursday. In next-door Baltimore City, a separate jurisdiction where city officials were criticized for closing schools for more than a week because of delays in snow cleanup, the school district issued a statement Thursday saying that the walkouts demonstrate students’ civic interest in exercising their First Amendment rights. “Hundreds of students from several schools chose to participate in a peaceful protest on Thursday related to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). While this activity was not organized or sponsored by the district or individual schools, school leaders worked closely with City Schools Police and Baltimore City Police to prioritize student safety by establishing designated spaces and safe passage for participating students,” the city’s spokesman told WBAL-TV. A parent at Cascade Middle School at Highline school district outside Seattle, Ragnar Lothbrok, said teachers took his son, along with the entire class, to an anti-ICE protest on Wednesday during school hours, without informing parents. He said when he posted a video complaining about the school’s actions, he was told his son is not allowed to return to class — to ensure his own safety from retaliation for his father’s video.“These things have been ending deadly and they brought my child there,” he posted in a video. “Now he’s going to get the backlash from this.”Not all student protests have been peaceful. Reports have documented students vandalizing buses, tearing down street lamps, and throwing items at passing vehicles. “Is this an anti-ICE march or The Running of the Bulls?” asked a senior journalism fellow at the conservative Discovery Institute, Jonathan Choe, who witnessed the Seattle protests with more than 1,000 kids. Several parents have said they will remove their kids from schools that encourage walkouts, leading several school districts to say they are not sanctioning them, though they are also not exactly hampering them. School leaders in Iowa, Georgia, Nevada, and Minnesota have warned that students who leave class will be marked absent or face disciplinary consequences. However, large numbers of students are walking out anyway, and some districts are taking a “monitor but don’t endorse” approach to safety. At Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, and New York City, for instance, administrators have been told to keep doors open, allow students to exit, follow them to ensure safety, and avoid disciplinary escalation. Portland’s school district has told principals not to stop students from leaving and instead to provide supervision and coordination with police for traffic control. At Minneapolis, staff accompanied students with megaphones for “crowd control.” Not all locales are turning a blind eye to student walkouts. The Texas Education Agency and Governor Gregg Abbott have warned districts that their schools could lose funding or face state takeover if they facilitate walkouts or allow protests. Still, students across the Houston, Forth Worth, and El Paso areas have organized walkouts.Florida’s education commissioner, Anastasios Kamoutsas, this week issued a statement warning school administrators that action may be taken against them if they permit students to leave for protests.

Algebra, English, and Activism: Teachers at Middle and High School Instruct Students How To Protest ICE

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