Student Walkout from Southwest Middle High School was emotional and a powerful statement about ICE terrorism in Grand Rapids

Students from Southwest Middle High School, also known as Academia Bilingüe, took part in a student walkout on Friday. Similar to the student walkout I reported on from February 4th, but in this case virtually all of the students that participated are from families of recent immigrants.

The Southwest Middle High School is located just off of Grandville Avenue/Cesar Chavez Way. The students asked members of GR Rapid Response to ICE to provide safeties for the day and members of the West Michigan Care Collective also joined the walkout to provide safeties and street medics.

The students marched all the way to City Hall, as they wanted to send a message to Grand Rapids City officials that they are mad as hell about what ICE is doing to their families and that the City should take the necessary steps to not collaborate with ICE.

Several students had megaphones to amplify their voices and to lead chants that were done in both Spanish and English. Chants like, “No Hate, No Fear, Immigrants are Welcome Here!”, and When I say Abolish, you say ICE, Abolish ICE, Abolish ICE!”, were just some of they chants that students used during the walkout.

The march wove throughout downtown on Monroe until the students arrived at City Hall. They took the stairs up to the Calder Plaza area and then spent the next 30 minutes making statements and sharing stories.

Several of the student organizers shared statements about why they organized a walkout and then named the Latin American countries of that student’s families originated from. The list was pretty long and you could tell which students were from countries like Mexico or Guatemala, since the cheers from the crowd were the loudest.

More importantly, the Southwest Middle High School students shared stories about the harm and violence committed by ICE, with some of them talking about family separation that they have witnessed themselves. This student group in particular understood the urgency of resisting ICE, since they and their families are part of the communities most affected by ICE terrorism. Their stories were powerful and you could hear how deeply personal it was for the students, many of which fought through tears as they spoke.

Emotions were high and so was the energy from these students. They were just as animated during the march back, maybe even more so after they had collectively communicated their fears, the pain and their anger at ICE and at City officials who have done nothing to help keep their families safe.

When the march was nearing the school along Grandville Avenue/Cesar Chavez Way, residents came out of their homes or honk their car horns in support. There were parents and supporters standing outside of Grandville Avenue Arts and Humanities cheering them on and offering water as the students were ending the march.

Once they were back at the school, many of the students, especially the student organizers, offered thanks and hugs to the safeties who walked with them that day. Again, several of the students fought through tears knowing that people were supporting them and wanting them to be safe from government repression. I was personally inspired by the whole walkout, they student’s vulnerability and thought that they too were teaching the rest of us on how we fight ICE!