Hundreds of Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD students to hold anti-ICE protest Monday
Students in the Eagle Mountain-Saginaw school district are planning a large anti-ICE protest at Boswell High School on Monday afternoon, just a week after dozens of students at Boswell walked out of class during the school day on Feb. 2.
Boswell students will gather at 4:25 p.m. at the Effie Center in opposition of ICE activity in Tarrant County and in response to two deaths of Minnesota residents in Minneapolis at the hands of federal immigration agents last month.
“These students are choosing to take action to protect their community members, U.S. citizens, legal residents, and undocumented people, alike,” Tarrant 4 Change, a student-led activism group, wrote in a news release.
Tarrant 4 Change is estimating Monday’s protest will have a turnout of several hundred people.
Boswell High School’s second anti-ICE protest comes as dozens of other schools across the Fort Worth area have held or planned similar walkouts. In the last few weeks, Haltom High School, Trimble Technical High, Richland High, Birdville High, L.D. Bell High, and Young Women’s Leadership Academy have held walkouts or protests.
School protests have gained so much steam across the state that the Texas Eduction Agency released new guidance last week regarding students’ walkouts, absences and possible consequences related to political activism. TEA said that students must be marked absent and schools risk losing daily attendance funding if they allow or encourage students to walk out of class.
The agency also said that teachers who facilitate walkouts will be subject to investigation and possible sanctions that could include revoking their licenses.
If there is evidence of a school system facilitating a protest, the district will be subject to investigation, which could lead to the district being taken over and a new board of managers being named to replace the existing school board, state officials said.
School walkouts have come after recent citywide protests and marches against ICE in both Fort Worth and Dallas. On Jan. 8, several hundred people took to the streets of downtown Dallas holding signs and chanting anti-ICE slogans. The same week, several hundred more did the same in downtown Fort Worth.
