<\/p>\n
Samuel O’Neal<\/p>\n
soneal@star-telegram.com<\/p>\n
Students at Trinity High School in Euless walked out of class at around 11:20 a.m. Friday morning to hold an anti-ICE protest, joining a rapidly growing list of high schools in DFW to protest ICE activity in the area.<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s protest started at Trinity High School, 500 N. Industrial Blvd., before students quickly made their way about a half mile to Euless City Hall, 203 N. Ector Dr. They gathered on the lawn in front of the City Hall building for a few minutes, chanting anti-ICE slogans and passing out cookies to fellow student protestors. They then made their way down a sidewalk along Airport Freeway, returning to City Hall and Trinity High.<\/p>\n
The protest included well over 100 students and lasted for about an hour.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do we want to chant, what do we want to say?\u201d A student leading the protest asked his fellow protesters over a megaphone on the lawn of Euless City Hall.<\/p>\n
About a dozen students suggested using an expletive to the leader holding the megaphone.<\/p>\n
The students chanted the expletive for a few minutes as more made their way to Euless City Hall from Trinity High. The group then headed down a sidewalk along Airport Freeway while Euless Police Officers watched from their patrol cars. No officers exited their vehicles or interacted with the students, but followed them along the frontage road.<\/p>\n
Euless police officers monitored the students as they protested down Highway 183 Friday morning. Samuel O\u2019Neal soneal@star-telegram.com <\/p>\n
A number of students held up flags from Spanish-speaking countries, including Guatamala, Mexico, and Honduras. Other students held up homemade signs that read \u201cI Like My ICE Crushed!\u201d and \u201cJesus Was An Immigrant Too.\u201d<\/p>\n
A student shows their anti-ICE sign during Friday\u2019s walk out protest Samuel O’Neal soneal@star-telegram.com <\/p>\n
Another student held a sign reading \u201cIf your undocumented neighbor does not have due process, then neither do you.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Trinity High School student shows their homemade anti-ICE sign during Friday\u2019s walk out protest. Samuel O\u2019Neal soneal@star-telegram.com <\/p>\n
As students marched along Airport Freeway, one rolled a speaker down the sidewalk as California-based rapper YG\u2019s anti-Donald Trump song \u201cFDT\u201d blared on maximum volume. Students sang along as they marched.<\/p>\n
A parent of a protester who monitored the students said the walkout was first planned about a week and a half ago. It was entirely student organized and faculty did not play a role in assisting, the parent said.<\/p>\n
Trinity High is the latest of dozens of North Texas high schools to hold a walkout in recent weeks and months to protest ICE activity in Tarrant County and the killing of two people in Minneapolis earlier this year.<\/p>\n
Students gathered in a circle to discuss what to chant during their anti-ICE walkout at Euless City Hall. Samuel O\u2019Neal soneal@star-telegram.com <\/p>\n
Earlier this month the Texas Education Agency issued new guidance on student-led walkouts as hundreds occurred across the state.<\/p>\n
TEA said students must be marked absent if they participate in walkouts and schools risk losing daily attendance funding if they allow or encourage students to walk out of class. The agency said teachers who facilitate walkouts will be subject to investigation and possible sanctions could include revoking their licenses.<\/p>\n
If there is evidence of a school system facilitating a walkout, 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 previously said.<\/p>\n
The guidance has caused some student leaders across DFW, like those at Saginaw High School, to only hold protests after school hours to ensure they are in compliance will all rules, a Saginaw student protest leader previously told the Star-Telegram.<\/p>\n
But at Trinity High on Friday, students still chose to walk out during school hours. A parent of a protesting student said Friday that the school has threatened disciplinary action for doing so.<\/p>\n
Students started at Euless City Hall before marching down Highway 183 on Friday during the anti-ICE walk out protest. Samuel O\u2019Neal soneal@star-telegram.com <\/p>\n
School walkouts in Texas have gotten so much buzz in recent weeks and months that Gov. Greg Abbott took to X to respond to a Star-Telegram story about walkouts in Haltom City. Despite that story not being about Fort Worth ISD, Abbott said in his post that he would \u201ccourse correct\u201d the Fort Worth school district.<\/p>\n
\u201cTHIS is a school district that Texas is taking over because FWISD has failed students for 5 years in a row,\u201d Abbott wrote on X. \u201cParents are fleeing FWISD & choosing school choice because they want their kids educated and not indoctrinated. The State will course correct FWSID.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other schools in the region that have had student walkouts include Fort Worth Trimble Tech, Richland, Birdville, Hurst L.D. Bell, Fort Worth Young Women\u2019s Leadership Academy, Saginaw and Saginaw Boswell.<\/p>\n