Cedar Shoals students walk out to protest ICE
Cedar Shoals High School students joined others from over 100 high schools across Georgia as they walked out on Jan. 30 to protest against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The walkouts were a part of a general strike organized online by University of Minnesota Student Unions after intensive care nurse Alex Pretti was shot by Customs and Border Protection agents in Minneapolis. Per the strike, some Americans chose to stay home from school or work, not spend money in forms other than cash, and only support local immigrant-owned businesses on Friday.
Three days prior to the walkout, posts began to circulate on Instagram from @cshs.walkoutt about the upcoming protest. The posts called for students to exit the school and protest down Cedar Shoals Drive towards Gaines School Road. However, the school’s designated place for the walkout was at Waters-Wilkins Stadium. Principal Makeba Clark says that having the walkout limited to an on-campus location keeps students safe.
“We want (students) to understand that we’re not trying to restrict them in the protest, but our top priority is safety, so that’s why it’s so important for them to go to the designated location. It will be the same if you’re out in the community, if you protest downtown, you have to have a permit,” Clark said.
A small group of students participated in the general strike by not attending school at all on Friday. They gathered across the street from the school and held signs with anti-ICE messages. Senior Ella Conway chose to protest off campus because she believes it has more impact.
“I think walkouts where we just go into the stadium isn’t really a true walkout, and isn’t very useful because it doesn’t give us any visibility. We’re telling ourselves that we’re upset, but everyone already knows that. I think it makes a much bigger statement if they see students involved in the community making a statement. If we walk out from school, it tells the school that we care. It tells society that we care. Walk outs have historically been a tool for emphasizing just how much students care about an issue,” Conway said.
However, Clark says that on-campus walkouts can still be meaningful if planned correctly.
“The purpose of the walkout is for you, as a student body, to raise awareness. So the ones that should be seeing you are your peers. If you’re wanting people on the streets to see you, then that’s something that can happen outside of school. I think if students focus more on making (walkouts) more cohesive, I think that will serve the purpose, and we won’t necessarily have to worry about the location in the picture,” Clark said.
Senior Kayla Gonzalez, who went to the stadium to participate in the walkout, felt that many of the students were not there for the right reasons.
“I’m really disappointed in Cedar Shoals, and how (students) can go to the stadium and not go out and protest with us. There were people throwing ice at the stadium and that was really disrespectful. I just don’t get how people can easily leave and skip, but not go out there and protest, that’s really disappointing,” Gonzalez said.
Front gate security guard Lasonja Hunt also says that not all students who participated were passionate about the cause, but proper planning on the students’ end can help solve that issue.
“Follow the rules and get together with a committee of people, some of your leaders, come up with a plan and maybe take a survey of all those who are truly interested in protesting. Make a questionnaire to make sure that people are really interested in protesting, and if they don’t answer those questions correctly, then they can’t get out of class,” Hunt said.
Hunt also believes that protesting off-campus is dangerous because there are too many outside factors that school security can’t control.
“For the ones that wanted to walk off campus and even for the ones that didn’t come to school today, it really upset me for them to be right across the street from the school. Not everybody is against ICE. Some people are for it.That brings negativity in the wrong way, because anything can happen. Then you’re endangering the kids that are (at school) because you’re enticing them to come out,” Hunt said.
Conway says that in the future, she would like to see students collaborate with the school administration to reach a compromise for walkouts and protests.
“If the admin would like to work with us, I would absolutely like to work with them to avoid as much drama and struggle as possible,” Conway said. “If they are willing to come at it with an intent to compromise like we are, then I would be happy with trying to work with them.”
