About 20 Thomas Jefferson Middle School students walked out of class Wednesday afternoon, carrying signs protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement practices, the latest in a series of protests against ICE.
“I like my ICE crushed” and “No one’s illegal on stolen land” were among the signs the Valparaiso students held as they walked quickly from the school to Fairgrounds Park.
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The issue hit home for eighth grader Jordon Hull, who emigrated with his parents from Canada when he was 6 years old.
“America was really built on immigration,” he said. “To take immigrants out of it kind of defeats the immigration roots out of this.”
Serenity Jones, a seventh grader, was also personally affected by ICE actions. “I’m walking because my cousin, she almost got deported, and her mother.” They’re both in the United States legally, Jones said.
“It’s hurting people who didn’t even do things,” she said.
Eighth grader Ronnie Eckman was helping bring up the rear as the excited students walked briskly. “No one is illegal on stolen land, and Jesus was an immigrant as well. So why are we getting rid of immigrants?”
“ICE is taking immigrants, and some of them are innocent,” Eckman said.
“We’re the United States. We’re supposed to be united,” eighth grader Veda Boruff said.
Sixth grader Starry Hampton said the students were united in their effort to protest ICE. “If we get suspended, we all get suspended together.” A lot of kids’ parents don’t have time to sign out their kids, so they would be counted absent instead of truant, Hampton said.
Valparaiso Community Schools Superintendent Jim McCall offered the same reaction by email Wednesday as he did during other student walkouts.
“Valparaiso Community Schools respects students’ rights to express their views and recognizes that civic engagement is an important part of the democratic process especially as we approach the nation’s semiquincentennial,” he said. “At the same time, our responsibility is to maintain a safe and orderly learning environment, and students are expected to follow school attendance and behavioral procedures; as such, any violations of the student handbook will be addressed accordingly by school administration.”
Parents Tiffin and Todd Ickow have a daughter in eighth grade who participated in the walkout. “Nobody said anything” about signing out the kids, Tiffin said as she watched the kids march, chant and yell.
“I think it’s great that they’re out doing something that they believe in and finding their voice,” Tiffin said.
“She’s never gotten in trouble in her life,” Todd said.
As the students marched, many drivers honked to show their support. No hecklers showed up.
That wasn’t the case when Ben Franklin Middle School students held a walkout March 18.
Paige Schmitty, a seventh grader at Ben Franklin Middle School in Valparaiso, led an anti-ICE walkout at her school March 18. About 60 students participated.
Paige and her mother, Brittney Schmitty, spoke Monday night about the March 18 walkout.
“It was just ICE, to spread awareness to my school and peers in my school about what was going on in our community because I think younger voices expressing their displeasure with how the world is right now does get people in the community to think and notice and pay attention to it,” Paige said.
“I don’t think it’s humane. I don’t think it’s what’s right as humans to do. I don’t think that just what ICE is doing at all should be happening,” she said, including “ICE harming people, killing people, not rightfully giving people due process.”
“We held signs and chanted for 45 minutes,” she said. One of the signs Paige held read, “A girl in the attic is writing about ICE.”
“We got a lot of honking, which was for us, and then we got some adults who would try to get out of the car and cause something. We had some angry adults,” Paige said.
Brittney picked up the narrative. “I stood down the sidewalk with another, with two other parents that attended, just to observe it. There were a couple, at least three, parents that got out and expressed their displeasure for what was going on. I know two parents went inside the school, and one parent approached the group, yelling and pointing at them before she ended up going into the school to complain.”
Before the walkout, Paige and a friend scheduled a meeting with their principal, Brittney said. “The school let them know it would be a truancy for anybody who didn’t sign out,” including Paige.
“We had to spread the word a lot. We had to tell our students; we had to text friends and ask their friends if they wanted to do it. We had to keep kind of a record of who was doing it, so we had an idea of how many were doing it,” Paige said.
The next day, Paige took the social studies exam she missed. Despite missing class, she learned something during the walkout. “I learned that no matter your age and stuff, you can get your point out.” Walkouts can get the community to talk about issues, she said.
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Brittney is proud of her daughter. “It’s important that young people feel like their voices are heard, especially at a time right now when a lot of people are being told to shut up and deal with it, like this is what it is.”
“I was pleasantly surprised to see the amount of kids that feel like they are just on the side of human decency,” she said.
After the walkout, Brittney and another parent offered to take anybody’s sign so they didn’t have to take it back to class. “One girl gave me her sign and said, ‘Here, I can’t take this home.’ So I feel like at school, for that walkout, she had a chance to use her voice the way she wanted to, and that maybe at home she’s not allowed to do that. So I feel like it’s empowering for students her, Paige’s, age to do this.”
Paige plans to remain politically active. “I want to be able to stand up for what’s right, and I think as an adult, I’ll be able to do that.”
When Paige grows up, she said, her political ambitions could lead her to consider running for president.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.