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A group of Warsaw Community High School students participated in a walkout Friday and marched to downtown Warsaw against the actions of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Students held posters that said things like “ICE get out of my city” and “Families Belong Together” on them. Some held various flags. While walking, the students chanted “No more ICE.”
Sophomore Janniah Johnson said she started and organized the walkout after a conversation with a friend. The walkout was “against everything that’s we’ve got going on. It’s against the government, the people being taken from their families, being broken apart by the government. It’s the people we live by every day, go to school with every day and their families are being ripped apart and nobody’s doing anything about it because of what’s going on and nobody’s doing anything about it. So if the most we can do is this, then we will do it.”
The walkout came with some complications, Johnson said.
“The school was, I wouldn’t say super supportive, but they didn’t stop us. They let us go because it is our First Amendment right to speak and we did that today,” Johnson said.
She said the plan was to meet at the Performing Arts Center after sixth period. However, she said the group was told they couldn’t meet at the PAC and had to go to the TRAC instead.
Johnson said they purposely stayed on the high school campus until school was over because WCHS Principal Troy Akers had said if students had left campus before school ended, it could cause some students to get into trouble such as suspension or expulsion “and that’s not what I wanted for anybody. This is for us to speak our minds and not be in trouble.”
Media also was not allowed on the high school campus to cover the walkout.
Those participating in the walkout went to the TRAC and did a couple laps, walked to Edgewood Middle School and then walked to the old courthouse, Johnson said. They walked around the old courthouse and Justice Building and went along Ind. 15 before going back to the old courthouse.
Johnson said she hopes people understand just because the students are kids doesn’t mean they don’t see and understand what’s going on around them.
“It’s our families. It’s our friends, it’s our neighbors. It’s people we go to school with. It’s people our families we work with. It’s people around us and it’s affecting all of us, not just the adults that can vote. Even though we can’t vote, we have a reason and a right to say how we feel about what’s going on today,” Johnson said.
Sophomore Patryck Bocianski said he decided to participate in the walkout because his mother is a legal citizen from Brazil. She has to walk around carrying her citizenship documents out of fear if she gets questioned by law enforcement, they will think she’s not in the United States legally. He said he doesn’t want to lose his mother to a mistake in the system.
He said the walkout helps “get our word out, gets everyone to know what our minds are thinking, how we think about ICE and how the world really actually feels about what’s going in the United States right now.”
Several adults joined the students in their walk downtown.
One woman said she was blocking traffic at the intersection of Buffalo and Market streets so the students could cross the street safely.
“They’re doing an amazing job staying together, staying on the sidewalk, they were doing everything right. So as the adults, we were blocking traffic to make sure that they stayed safe,” she said.
She said one person not associated with the walkout was telling cars to run the students over. “He didn’t care about them, we were stupid, we shouldn’t be out here, so I just kind of blocked him and that’s when he decided to start assaulting me. But I would rather I get assaulted than one of (the kids) get hurt,” she said.
The Warsaw Police Department was called.
Warsaw Community Schools also released a statement regarding the walkout.
“Today, a group of students at Warsaw Community High School chose to participate in a walkout during the instructional day. In light of recent events across the state and circulating rumors, Warsaw Community Schools had communicated multiple reminders to students and families regarding safety procedures and attendance expectations outlined in the Student-Parent Handbook,” the statement said. “While we respect that students may have strong personal beliefs, we are required to prioritize student safety and maintain a secure, supervised learning environment during the school day.”
