Dozens of students at each of three Brevard public high schools walked out of class today to protest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE.
They did so despite threats that they would be suspended for participating.
Students at Viera, Rockledge, and Satellite high schools walked out of class on Friday. Once they were safely off the property, they chanted and held signs protesting ICE raids and the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Loren, a Satellite High School student, said she and her fellow protesters won’t be silenced, despite the district and the school board chair threatening disciplinary action. Fearing retribution, she asked that only her first name be used.
“There's so many Hispanic people at our school that are afraid, and just it's ridiculous what's happening. There's no reason for it, and there's no reason to stop us from coming out here, other than you disagree,” Loren said.
Earlier this week, School Board Chair Matt Susin said students could be suspended for protesting. BPS said schools could take disciplinary action up to and including suspension.
Student voices
At the protest at Viera High, seniors Layla, Nate and Scarlett, who asked that only their first names be used, said those threats are an infringement on their First Amendment rights.
Layla said she decided to participate in the walkout as a daughter of immigrants, saying, “My father is an immigrant, and a lot of my family is immigrants, and I love them so much, and I don't think that anyone, despite how they got here, if they were born here or not, deserves the treatment that immigrants are getting from ICE right now.”
She said: “I just think it's silly. A lot of people are saying, like, ‘Oh, this isn't like a matter for you guys to worry about,’ but we're the next voting generation. This is very much concerning us. We have to live in the world that adults now are creating, so we might as well use our voices how we can.”
Nate and Scarlett agreed.
“I think it's just they're trying to scare us into submission and to silence our voices,” Nate said. “If we don't use our voices to stand up for what we feel is right, whether you agree with us or not, I just think nothing's gonna change. And we're gonna have to live in this world when we grow up.”
Nate joined the walkout as a proud Latino, he said. “I'm personally Hispanic, so I can kind of somewhat relate with everything that's going down and the racial profiling and everything.”
“For all of the people who have been killed by ICE,” Scarlett said, “all of the children who have been taken and just everyone who's been separated in their families who can't use their voice. I'm out here today to express my anger. It's just so unfair, incredibly, incredibly, horrible, and I don't think that it's right.”
For Scarlett the protest was a learning opportunity, she said. “I am doing something out here that I hope everyone can learn from and to understand that it's not okay, and we have a voice. We're allowed to use it no matter what.”
Along with the students, there were some community members at the walkouts, too. They wanted to show their support and to make sure the kids’ First Amendment rights were being protected.
Anastasia Garcia is a 2005 graduate of Brevard Public Schools. She was at the walkout outside of Viera High.
“We as residents of Brevard need to decide who we are and how we're going to stand. And I think it's both beautiful and a shame that our children, that our teenagers, have to be the ones out here doing it because our adults are not,” Garcia said.
Disciplinary consequences
Florida Education Commissioner Stasi Kamoutsas wrote in a post on X that, “Any conduct by school or district personnel that diverts students from instruction, undermines classroom authority or compromises student supervision violates professional responsibilities and warrants disciplinary action.”
The school district, in a letter to families, simply said, “Students who leave campus without written parental permission, or who are outside of their assigned area, will face disciplinary consequences in accordance with the Student Code of Conduct. The level of discipline depends on the circumstances and may include suspension.”
Students throughout the state and country are holding walkouts to protest ICE. In Central Florida, another walkout is scheduled for Orange County Public Schools next week.
Walkouts took place at Leesburg High in Lake County this week.
Other states with student walkouts include Minnesota, California, Massachusetts, Georgia and Texas.
Read the BPS letter here:
