Under the guidance, students who walk out of class must be marked absent, which could cause districts to lose state funding based on attendance numbers. Teachers who facilitate student walkouts can have their licenses revoked for violating state laws that prohibit them from encouraging or facilitating students from leaving class to engage in political activism.<\/p>\n
TEA\u2019s guidance does not provide information on protests held outside of school hours. The agency did not respond to El Paso Matters\u2019 questions asking if any El Paso schools were under investigation.<\/p>\n
Some student protest organizers said they received pushback from campus administrators, who sent emails to parents warning them that leaving class to participate in a protest is considered an unexcused absence.<\/p>\n
Some said they received notices informing them their child could get kicked off their school\u2019s sports team if they participate.<\/p>\n
Organizers of a walkout held during the last school period Wednesday at Bel Air High School said they were threatened with disciplinary referrals and suspensions for planning the protest.<\/p>\n
Angel Chavez, 17, said he believes the new guidelines are a ploy from Gov. Greg Abbott, who last week directed <\/a>the commissioner of education to investigate student walkouts in Austin, to silence students who speak out against ICE.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really just disheartening to see everything that\u2019s happening and see that just because we\u2019re a minority, they think they could shut our voices down. Just because we go to public school, they think that there\u2019s a new way that they can stop us from speaking out,\u201d Chavez told reporters Wednesday. \u201cI\u2019m not a political science major, but this feels unconstitutional.\u201d<\/p>\n The walkout guidance comes after Texas Republican leaders in December launched a partnership with the conservative organization Turning Point USA<\/a> aimed at creating student chapters at all high schools in the state. Abbott at the time said he expected disciplinary action against schools who tried to stop<\/a> clubs from organizing, adding that schools who didn\u2019t support the club should be reported to the TEA.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Turning Point student chapters would not necessarily be framed around student walkouts or during class time.<\/p>\n The ACLU of Texas on Friday said the state\u2019s threats of consequences for peaceful speech amounts to political retaliation.<\/p>\n \u201cGovernment officials cannot punish students simply because they dislike their message. Students do not lose their free speech rights when they enter their schools, and while the Constitution may permit discipline in some cases, it certainly does not require it,\u201d ACLU of Texas Legal Director Adriana Pi\u00f1on said in a statement.<\/p>\n State law prohibits public schools and their employees from supporting or opposing any forms of political activism that disrupts learning during the school day, and from using taxpayer-funded resources to facilitate political activism.<\/p>\n Sophia Gutierrez, an Eastwood High School junior who organized a walkout during class time, said students were driven to protest increasingly violent immigration enforcement actions across the country after the shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, at the hands of federal agents.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s heartbreaking to see what ICE agents are doing to students, to kids, to mothers, to fathers across the country. And I\u2019m just so disappointed in the country,\u201d Gutierrez said. \u201cSeeing how our democracy is under attack is making me feel hopeless. But these protests have reignited something in me and my peers.<\/p>\n In West El Paso, Franklin High School students tried and failed to hold a walkout during class, even after parents received an email Wednesday from the school\u2019s principal, Amanda Bowser, stating that prior walkouts were treated as a \u201cone-time allowance\u201d that would not be extended. Students had walked out of the school a week earlier to protest ICE.<\/p>\n Several students who left campus for lunch said school staff confiscated students\u2019 protest posters and gave disciplinary referrals to anyone who tried to participate in the walkout. They said school security blocked doors, preventing students from going outside.<\/p>\n Franklin High School sophomore Nathan Deglado said school officials took two posters from him with the slogans \u201cbrown and proud,\u201d with a Mexican flag, and \u201cjustice and liberty for all,\u201d with the word ICE crossed out.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have a stack of posters on their desk,\u201d Delgado, 15, told El Paso Matters.<\/p>\n El Paso Independent School District officials said students were given referrals for leaving class, but denied allegations that they confiscated posters or blocked students from protesting.<\/p>\n El Paso and Ysleta school district officials said in a statement that they were aware of the protests and are keeping an eye on them, but are not sponsoring, authorizing or participating in them.<\/p>\n Socorro Independent School District officials said the district does not organize, sponsor or monitor student walkouts.<\/p>\n \u201cEl Paso ISD respects students\u2019 interest in civic engagement and encourages students and families to have conversations about expressing views in ways that are safe, respectful, and do not disrupt learning. The district remains committed to following all applicable state laws and guidance while ensuring the well-being of our students,\u201d EPISD officials said in a statement.<\/p>\n YISD officials said students have been reprimanded and counted absent for leaving class as part of the protests, but did not specify how many.<\/p>\n \u201cYsleta ISD respects each student\u2019s individual right to free speech and encourages them to discuss important issues that are affecting our world. Although we will not physically prevent students from walking out of our schools as part of a protest, the district will take every precaution to ensure the safety and security of students,\u201d YISD officials said in a statement.<\/p>\n All three districts said their priority is to keep students safe and minimize disruption, but emphasized that students will be counted absent and their parents will be notified if they leave class.<\/p>\n \u201cStudents have First Amendment rights, and the district respects their ability to express themselves. At the same time, Texas law, TEA guidance, and district policy are clear that demonstrations may not occur during instructional time or in ways that disrupt school operations. Those expectations have long been in place and have not changed,\u201d SISD officials said in a statement.<\/p>\n Students at El Dorado High School in Socorro ISD staged a walkout in September protesting against a new state law barring public school employees from using a student\u2019s chosen name, and another in 2023 advocating for gun legislation in the U.S.<\/p>\n SISD students said school employees did not try to stop them, nor did they face disciplinary consequences for the September protest.<\/p>\n Joining a movement<\/p>\n Students said the walkout at Eastwood High School on Jan. 29 sparked the citywide movement of students who wanted to speak out against ICE.<\/p>\n Gutierrez said she planned the walkout with help from students in San Antonio, who had staged their own anti-ICE protest, and began helping students at other schools organize similar events.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve sent out resources to a bunch of different schools that started their own protests. And I think it was just incredible to see the amount of people who were willing to risk disciplinary action or to organize,\u201d Gutierrez, 16, told El Paso Matters.<\/p>\n Student organizers said they wanted the protests to be safe and organized, so they reached out to their campus\u2019s administrators to coordinate and plan a route for students to take.<\/p>\n Chavez said Bel Air High School administrators initially ignored him and his classmates\u2019 requests until they set a date for the walkout and began spreading the word.<\/p>\n \u201cFinally, when they did see what was happening, I don\u2019t know if force of hand is the right word, but that\u2019s when they were motivated to finally speak with us,\u201d Chavez said.<\/p>\n Franklin High School senior Rainy Preece said her school\u2019s efforts to stop students from protesting may encourage them to keep trying.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not going to stop, because this is such a big, important community issue. I think a lot of people care about, and by trying to make us quiet, people are going to fight back harder and smarter,\u201d Preece, 18, told El Paso Matters.<\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Students at schools across El Paso El Paso have staged protests the last two weeks against nationwide Immigration…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[163,138,140,139],"class_list":{"0":"post-156027","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-el-paso","8":"tag-education","9":"tag-el-paso","10":"tag-el-paso-headlines","11":"tag-el-paso-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_7503-e1770420328111-1024x505.png\")
Bel Air High School students walkout to protest national and local ICE actions, Feb. 5, 2025. (Claudia Lorena Silva\/El Paso Matters)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/CB_EastwoodICEProtest-9.jpg\")
From left, Eastwood High School students Sophie Gutierrez, Lalani Davis, Zaylie Buck and Elisa Aguirre organized a walkout to protest ICE enforcement nationwide, as well as construction of new detention center in Far East El Paso County, Jan. 29, 2026. (Corrie Boudreaux\/El Paso Matters)<\/p>\n