On January 30th, students held an anti-ICE walkout. The walkout began at 2:00, starting with a small but mighty crowd. By 2:15, the crowd had moved from Mountain View High School to the roundabout on the corner of North Boyd Lake Ave and Mountain Lion Drive.
The crowd held their signs high, along with chanting about the discrimination of ICE. Difficulties arose when the time reached 2:30, and the crowd remained at 11 people. Members of the protest expressed minor disappointment with the size of their crowd, but they stayed determined to keep their protest going. Grace Hildman, a sophomore at Mountain View, expressed her disappointment about the size of the crowd: “The turnout wasn’t very good; there weren’t many people, but I feel like it wasn’t really bad.”
When the topic of why minimal people showed up, Gracie exclaimed, “I feel like it wasn’t talked about enough. I didn’t even know about it until this morning.” This was not the only issue with the protest. Along with the honking in support, several people expressed their disdain for the protest, claiming that ICE is only doing what it is supposed to do and that there is no issue with its actions. Since this was a walkout protest, a cop car was nearby, ready to respond immediately if anything happened. Beyond the size of the crowd, it still shows a statement of the people.
For those of you who do not know what ICE is or what it stands for, here is a brief introduction. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a federal law enforcement agency that focuses on “operations targeting public safety threats, such as convicted criminal undocumented aliens, and gang members.” In simple terms, ICE tries its best to find and target minorities whom they deem to be “Illegal Aliens.” With this power and predigested, they have been targeting students, teachers, people just working their normal jobs, and families that they declare to be “a public safety threat.”
With the presence of ICE becoming more common on the streets, one of the major questions is, how do the students of the U.S feel, and do they feel it is still safe at school?
ICE can be a sensitive topic, which makes it hard to talk about. Cooper, a junior at Mountain View, expressed his worries. “I feel anxious every time ICE is brought up, as a Mexican, I worry. I am a legal citizen. I’ve never even lived in Mexico, yet I still worry.” Cecil, a sophomore at Mountain View, said in response to ICE. “It’s disgusting what they are doing. I don’t feel safe in school, and every day I worry that at any moment they may raid the school.” Not just students are worried, but teachers as well.
“We had a meeting about what to do if ICE shows up at our school.” Most of these teachers insisted on remaining anonymous because speaking out could threaten their jobs. “I’m scared, and it’s really important to speak out against it. The fact I can lose my job just for speaking out is crazy to me.” The vast majority of the staff at Mount View expressed their disdain for the rules that prevented them from speaking out. In response to these concerns, students organized an anti-ICE walkout and protest.
A powerful statement from Lee, a senior at Mountain View, reminds the people of the most important thing: “Even though the world is scary and hateful right now, the most important thing is to remember, we must stick together and fight for justice.”
