Several hundred Sam Barlow students staged a walkout on Jan. 13 during fourth period, protesting against the actions of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Trump administration. The walkout was peaceful and stayed on the campus, with students chanting and holding signs with messages against ICE, Trump, and the overall actions of the government. The signs and chants included messages such as “We Hate ICE”, “Fight Ignorance Not Immigrants”, “Chinga La Migra”, “ICE Causes Period Cramps”, and many others. Students in the walkout were shadowed by school staff and district administrators during the hour-long demonstration, with police being present as well inside the front office while the walkout happened, though they did not interfere due to the peaceful nature of the protest. Students participating in the walkout lapped around the campus multiple times, pausing in front of the school at moments to recoup and chant, and then continuing to lap around the school, with students going back inside when the walkout ended at the end of 4th period, when lunch started.
Discontent had been brewing among the student body as it had been throughout the rest of the nation, with the protest coming off the heels of nationwide protests before it for the murder of Renee Good by ICE in Minneapolis on Jan 7, and the later shooting of two people in Portland by the US Customs and Border Protection on Jan 8. The walkout was primarily organized by two students, Avery Coats and Silas Walker, with an Instagram post by Walker made on Jan. 8 with the poster for the walkout, featuring a Klu Klux Klan member dressed as an ICE agent and saying “F*CK ICE” and “FIGHT THE POWER”. They were inspired to take action by the shooting in Portland by the CBP, with Coats saying about Walker, “He made the art before the idea, and then I had the idea we should do something.” Though they hung up the posters throughout the school halls, they were taken down later that same night due to the inappropriate language on the poster, leading to the words on the poster being changed from “F*ck ICE” to “Resist ICE”. The poster called for people to “be there and fight for justice and hope, or let ignorance consume our nation”.
Overall, Coats and Walker were both very satisfied with the walkout, with both of them being surprised at the volume of students who attended, which is estimated to be around 300 students by The Outlook. This sentiment is shared with many other students as well, with many students who participated in the walkout being surprised by the number of students in attendance. While they have no plans currently for another walkout or similar action, both Coats and Walker see no reason that they would not organize another walkout or similar event if social events called for it, likely mirroring the state of the people throughout the country in their discontent against the government, just as the previous walkout did.
