PFLUGERVILLE, Texas — Students across Central Texas walked out of class in protest of Sunday’s ICE-involved shooting of Wilbur Rafael Garces Perez.
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Hundreds of high schoolers from several campuses across Pflugerville ISD (PfISD) and Hays CISD participated.
In Pflugerville, they convened at the Pflugerville Justice Center to call for accountability from authorities and state leaders.
“Last time Governor Greg Abbott recognized that we had done this, and if we can get the governor to recognize that, then I feel like we’re taking steps in the right direction,” said student Abigail Lilley.
She and many others at today’s walkout conducted the same type of demonstration in February, protesting ICE activity in Minneapolis.
Governor Abbott made a brief comment about Sunday’s shooting today.
“It seems like the details just remain sketchy,” said Abbott. “And so there’s not full information yet available about exactly what happened and what the status is right now. But we’ll work to stay on top of it.”
High school students from several campuses across Pflugerville ISD walked out of class in protest of Sunday’s ICE-involved shooting of Wilber Rafael Garces Perez (Photo: CBS Austin/Audrey Wong)
Student Gia Acosta said she feels it’s important to speak out, even if the Pflugerville community was not directly impacted by Sunday’s shooting.
“It doesn’t matter where it happened. The fact that it happened, point blank, period, is a problem,” she said. “And voicing it out in Pflugerville is making it known, ‘Hey, if this can happen anywhere else in the world, what makes you think it can’t happen here? What makes me think this can’t happen to you?'”
CBS Austin asked PfISD and Hays CISD if student safety—and loss of funding, which is attendance-based— was a concern with the walkouts.
Both districts referred us to their letters to families. In these letters, both districts made it clear that the walkouts were unaffiliated with the schools or districts.
High school students from several campuses across Pflugerville ISD walked out of class in protest of Sunday’s ICE-involved shooting of Wilber Rafael Garces Perez (Photo: CBS Austin/Audrey Wong)
Hays CISD wrote that the district “understands the seriousness of the issue and the passionate and personal emotions that accompany it,” but also “worries that disrupting the school day places a strain on resources both at school and in the local community among agencies that have no control over what happens with national immigration policy
Pflugerville ISD’s letter said “the district’s ability to ensure student safety is limited when students leave campus to participate in non-school-sanctioned activities.”
Sherrica Sims, who joined her daughter at the walkout in Pflugerville, says she was happy to join students in protesting after Sunday’s shooting.
“I’m going to support her,” Sims said. “Yeah, you can be concerned, but there’s no concern greater to me than her safety. And so that starts in school, but also, when she leaves our home, is she going to be safe? Is she going to be safe if she gets a traffic stop?”
Garces Pérez’s attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, says he told her he was trying to pull over in a safer location on Sunday when he was shot in the back.
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