It’s a cold Friday morning in Viera, and dozens of students are huddled near the intersection in front of the Brevard Public Schools administrative building.
They hold signs that read “Fight hate, ICE out,” and “Immigrants are welcome here,” as cars honk their support. The students are staging a protest against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“I'm out here because I've seen the news and I've seen everything that's going on. I'm personally Hispanic, so I can kind of somewhat relate with everything that's going down and the racial profiling and everything.”
That’s Nate. He’s here with Layla and Scarlett. They asked us to use their first names only as students were threatened with suspension for participating.
“I just feel like everything that's going on in this country is so corrupt and wrong and it's hurting the citizens that are supposed to come here for like, freedom and to feel safe in their own homes, and not be able to do that is just extremely sad and disheartening,” Nate said.
Despite the threats the students said it’s important for them to speak out against what they see as injustice.
“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,” Layla said.
Adults respond
SEE Alliance’s Director Zander Moricz said, of course, Central Florida students are going to hold walkouts. SEE Alliance which stands for Social Equity Through Education is a youth-centered nonprofit. It empowers youth activists through education, voter registration, and protests. Students see photos, watch the videos and hear the stories about actions being taken against immigrant families and in some cases U.S. citizens.
“They respond, they organize, they speak out, and they do what American students have always done in moments of injustice. They stand together and demand safety for their peers, their families and themselves and that response, while framed by some politicians as radical, is rather reasonable,” Moricz said.
Moricz, whose group is focused on youth civic engagement, says it’s up to the adults in their lives to support these students, as they practice their First Amendment rights.
“If we're brave enough to watch, to listen. Florida students are showing us the way out. They are carving the path forward, and they are giving us the answers,” Moricz said.
Florida Education Commissioner Stasi Kamoutsas in a letter to districts, said it is not a student’s right to disrupt class while participating in a walkout. He warned of disciplinary actions for students, but also teachers and district leaders.
“Florida’s public schools exist first and foremost to provide high-quality instruction aligned to state academic standards in a safe and secure environment,” Kamoutsas wrote. “Students retain constitutional rights to free expression, including the ability to participate in peaceful protest, when such expression complies with applicable law and school district policy.”
Kamoutsas warned that any student “whose actions are to the contrary, should be appropriately disciplined” and 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.”
In a Tweet on X, where Kamoutsas shared the letter, he said, “We will not tolerate educators encouraging school protests and pushing their political views on students, especially ones that disparage law enforcement.”
Governor Ron DeSantis retweeted the commissioner saying simply, “Our kids are not pawns for political activism. Education, not indoctrination.”
What rights do kids have?
Attorney Michelle Morton with the American Civil Liberties Union says the law doesn’t offer these students many protections if they do in fact disrupt class during walkouts.
“So the general rule is that students don't lose their First Amendment rights when they go to school. However, those rights are balanced against the school's interest in maintaining an educational environment. So if what the students are doing disrupts that environment, then the school might be able to punish them,” Morton said.
Morton said students can silently protest these issues as was protected in the seminal case of Tinker vs. Des Moines Independent Community School District. It found that students could wear black armbands to protest the Vietnam War, and that school districts couldn’t stop them.
But those same First Amendment rights protections won’t always extend to kids leaving school during a walkout. The Florida Constitution and state statutes, “declare it a paramount duty of the state to provide a uniform, safe, secure, efficient, and high-quality system of free public schools.”
“You have schools who need to keep the students safe. They've got things they need to teach them. They've got all of the students to think about, and so there's this competing interest now. In an ideal world, the school would find a way to provide opportunities, provide outlets for students to engage in this debate,” Morton said.
Protests continue in Orange and Seminole counties
Seminole County student and protest organizer Angel Velez said students at 10 high schools in Orange and Seminole counties will participate in walkouts Friday, February 13.
“There's a lot of young voices that need to be heard, and there's a lot of people in Florida who come from families that are being targeted and being oppressed,” Velez said.
Student protests aren’t just happening in Florida, but in states across the country from California to Georgia.
