Over 200 students at Taylor Allderdice High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, recently walked out to protest against ICE. This is just the latest example of young people in America organizing politically to protect their peers from ICE’s violence, a trend that has become increasingly common across the country.
The protest took place on February 18, starting shortly after 1 PM, local time. Dozens of students walked out of Allderdice’s Squirell High campus and marched down Forward Avenue toward a gas station near Murray Avenue, where more than 200 teenagers gathered to protest with signs for over an hour.
As seen in the video, the students chanted “abolish ICE” and held numerous signs expressing their grievances with the agency. One sign read “no more secret police,” while others featured phrases such as “take a stand, ICE needs to be banned” and “no one is illegal in stolen land.” Police were present at the scene, and the gathering remained entirely peaceful; the teenagers were able to participate without incident.
As reported by WESA, fear of ICE affected attendance in Pittsburgh schools in February, especially since rumors of an ICE agent approaching Taylor Allderdice High School’s campus surfaced. This partly motivated the protest, as some students themselves feared the agents’ actions in the region.
Students Have Been Protesting Against ICE All Over America
This walkout in Pittsburgh was far from the only major protest against ICE organized by high schoolers, as similar events have been happening all over the country. Local reactions have varied, though, and students have faced issues in some places.
Texas has seen quite a few high school walkouts against ICE recently, for example, which led the Texas Education Agency to issue guidelines warning schools that they could lose daily attendance funding if they allowed students to walk out, or that teachers who facilitated these protests would be investigated.
In some cases, otherwise peaceful protests even turned violent when locals intervened. One example was when a man attacked a teen during an ICE walkout in Arizona and threatened a group with a knife, scaring the teenagers.
