TAMPA, Fla. — Students at Hillsborough High School planned a Friday walkout, protesting ICE. This comes after the State’s Education Commissioner, Anastasios Kamoutsas, warned that demonstrations during the school day aren’t allowed.
What You Need To Know
About 60 students walked out of the school and gathered around the flag pole to protest ICE
State Rep. Michael Owen has been vocal about protests not being allowed during school hours
Students who spoke with Spectrum News say will accept the consequence of their actions
BELOW: Read memo sent by State’s Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas
About 60 students walked out of the school and gathered around the flag pole at 1:40 p.m. They had their anti-ICE signs ready to go, and once they were all out, they left school, walking just over three miles to Middleton High School, and back.
“Today we are protesting against the brutality of ICE. We have decided as a group of young students the generation is in our hands,” said Dejaverie Brown, a senior at Hillsborough High School.
Dejaverie led her classmates in the protest, saying, “We are slowly and surely making a difference in this world.”
On Tuesday, Kamoutsas sent a memo to all superintendents after anti-ICE protests broke out at schools across the state. In it, he said students retain constitutional rights to free expression when it complies with applicable law and school district policy, and if it doesn’t, students should be disciplined.
Despite that, Dejaverie says students here didn’t want to just stand by. “We cannot sit by and let ICE continue to destroy innocent lives.”
We spoke with State Rep. Michael Owen on the phone Friday morning before the protest at Hillsborough High School. He has been vocal about protests not being allowed during school hours.
Hillsborough High School students say they were aware that there could be consequences for their actions, but say it’s a risk they were willing to take. (Spectrum News)
“It doesn’t matter what you’re protesting,” Owen said. “I’m a pro-life person. I would be the same way if kids were going to miss class on a taxpayer’s dime to protest that, so schools don’t need to be about political ideologies protesting and missing class. It needs to be about math, science, English and history,” said Owen.
Hillsborough High School students say they were aware that there could be consequences for their actions, but say it’s a risk they were willing to take.
“If they want to suspend me, expel me, for standing up for what’s right, then it was never right for me to go there. We’re going to stand up and we are going to fight,” said Dejaverie.
We saw school administrators waiting outside the high school when students returned. Some students walked back into the building, but by the time they got back, school was letting out for the day.
Hillsborough County District Officials say the district does not approve or condone this type of activity. They said they’ll refer to the Student Code of Conduct for any disciplinary action, and it’ll depend on each student’s previous record.