From walls to bathroom stalls, posters advertising the “ICE Out Walkout” have appeared everywhere on campus this week.
The Ice Out Walkout and rally, which is scheduled to take place at 12 p.m. on Thursday at Seattle City Hall, was organized by six Lakeside seniors. Students from at least 17 Seattle-area schools plan to leave campus and attend the protest, where student speakers have been organized. During assembly today, organizer Kameirah J. ’26 said students planning to attend the protest should leave campus at 11:00 a.m. The rally will end around 1:30-2:00 pm, estimated organizer Demri C. ’26.
“Right now with everything that’s going on, I think we felt a need for immediate action, just with the deaths and the abductions and unlawful deportations,” said Demri. “Our goal is to kind of bring the students of Seattle together and mobilize. … we really want to try to reach the legislators, the people who can actually do something, and show them that we’re organizing collective action as kids, like our voices matter.”
The protest is meant to speak out against not only ICE’s recent killings of two American citizens in Minnesota, but also against the deaths of other people at the hands of ICE officers, said Demri. Organizer Amara A. ’26 also highlighted the threat to education posed by ICE’s presence around the country. Three weeks ago, six Seattle Public Schools schools went into a shelter-in-place after reported ICE presence.
“I sort of feel complicit, even though […] I didn’t vote in this administration and that it’s sort of our responsibility to take action,” said Amara. “This felt like one of the most concrete ways to do that, through a walkout.”
The idea began with a ceramics class conversation last Wednesday between Amara, Demri, and Anna C. ’26, another Lakeside organizer. “It was in context with the National Shutdown,” Demri recalled, referring to a nationwide movement that urged people not to attend school, work, or shop on Friday, January 30. “Why is there a shutdown if there is no protest?” she remembers wondering. (Ultimately, there was a small walkout at Lakeside that afternoon organized by a junior; approximately 10 students walked out of Lakeside’s pep rally).
After deciding against a Lakeside-only protest due to the small size and negligible impact, the idea to go to City Hall was brought up. Demri remembered thinking “We might as well get more people to come. It’s a public space, and there hadn’t been any student-wide walkouts organized.”
“Why are we sitting around waiting for somebody else to organize it when we have the resources to do so?” she said, adding that “the people who have the space and the energy and the time, and to some extent the privilege to go out and protest have to do that, because the people who are really vulnerable right now can’t.”
The next day around noon, the organizers created a group chat, and a few hours later, the @iceoutseattleschools Instagram account. The account — which contains information about protest plans, safety measures, and public transportation routes — has amassed over 1,900 followers in the past six days.
Kameirah said that many schools have made their own ICE Out Instagram accounts in response to the organizers’ main account, including UPrep’s @pumas.for.change and Bishop Blanchet’s @iceoutbears.
Soon after creating the account, Demri said they received a flood of direct messages from students who attend various schools as well as activist organizations offering support. For example, the Seattle Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (SAARPR) has offered to provide megaphones, sound equipment, and “some of their people to be there on the day of the walkout so in case anything happens they can help with de-escalation and just moral support,” said Kailyn S. ‘26, a Garfield senior who’s helping organize the protest and is also part of Garfield’s “Rapid Response” club, which assists immigrant students and families by providing services like safe carpools to school. She said SAARPR helped Garfield students with a multi-school walkout and protest that took place on January 16.
“I decided I wanted to get involved because the government workers [ICE agents] are terrorizing families all over America. And I know right now it’s hard for people at risk of being targeted by ICE to speak up. And as a white American citizen myself, I feel like it’s my job to stand up for those who can’t,” said Kailyn.
At Lakeside, in addition to students, teachers have shown their support. The six senior organizers have been working with Human Development teacher Abbey Sandusky, who has provided guidance on organizing the walkout. For example, Demri said that, at the advice of Mx. Sandusky, Amara decided to call the Seattle Police Department to notify them in advance of the protest. Both Mx. Sandusky and math teacher Lauren Wooley handed out cards to students last Friday explaining their Constitutional rights.
In an interview, Ryan Boccuzzi, assistant head of school and Upper School director, said that the handing out of cards was not organized by administrators but that “we always encourage our teachers to find ways to engage students in conversations about what’s going on … And I think that handing out cards that explain to students what their rights are is, you know, is a fair way to do that.”
He added that “our absence policy still applies” and that he expects students attending the protest to sign out, fill out a planned absence form, and get parental approval. He said that, as is typically the case when students miss class, they will need to make up missed work. Upper School Assistant Director Whitney Suttell said in an email Wednesday afternoon that students who take the necessary steps to verify their absence will be able to participate in after-school activities, including athletics.
“I have been getting a sense that there seem to be a good number of students interested in doing it [attending the protest] and I’m, in part, excited and feeling proud that Lakeside students are choosing to use their voices and take part in activities like this — I haven’t seen a ton of that in my four years here, like our students doing things in the spirit of activism around any cause,” Mr. Boccuzzi said. He added that attending the protest is a decision that should be made with families and that “I think there’s no judgement if a student says ‘Yeah, this isn’t for me.’ It doesn’t mean you don’t care about an issue, it doesn’t mean you think the exact opposite.”
For students planning to attend, organizers shared several safety tips via Instagram, including recommending that people who don’t want to be identified in footage of the protest wear a mask and that people bring an ID that demonstrates citizenship. The main thing to keep in mind, Demri noted, is that people without legal status or who feel they would be putting their or their family’s safety in jeopardy should not go.
Demri also added that the risk of ICE presence at the protest is low. However, Kailyn said, “You always want to know your rights. If you’re worried about ICE or police, research your rights and what they can and can’t do.”
Tatler reporters will be covering the Thursday walkout. Stay tuned for a more in-depth article in our February issue and at tatler.lakesideschool.org
Elina L. ’29 and Max C. ’29 contributed reporting
