Another GRPS student walkout took place on Wednesday, where students demanded ICE out of Grand Rapids

On Wednesday, more than 100 students from Innovation Central High School in Grand Rapids participated in a walkout against ICE.

This was the third student walkout I have witnessed and provided support for in terms of crowd safety. On February 4th, students from the Museum High School did a walkout. On February 13th, students from Southwest Middle High School, also known as Academia Bilingüe, took part in a walkout as well.

Student walkouts have been taking place across the country, especially in school districts where large numbers of immigrant students attend school, like the Grand Rapids Public Schools.

As in the previous student walkouts, these were initiated and organized by students who want to not only make a statement about the terrorism that ICE is inflicting in their communities, but also to share their stories of how family members and neighbors are affected by ICE arrests, detention and deportation.

The Innovation Central High School students walked out of their school around 12:30pm and marched towards downtown. Along the way they were greeted by people honking their horns, cheering for them and taking video of their public act of defiance against what the federal government is doing to create fear and terror in affected communities.

The GRPS students marched down to the Rosa Parks statue on Monroe and stood on the sidewalk with signs, chanting and lots of energy. There was one student who brought a portable amplifier with him that was play musica Dominicano – Dominican music, music that was celebratory.

The students then marched over the Calder Plaza in order to be near the Federal building, along with the City and County buildings, since they are aware of how local governments are collaborating with ICE.

What was different about this group of students compared to the other student walkouts that I have reported on was that they did not make speeches. Instead of making speeches, these students made noise and danced, as you can see in the video here below.

For these students their resistance was also festive. They chose to dance, since it was rooted in cultural and historic opposition to oppression, much like the Super Bowl halftime show with Bad Bunny.

The student celebration was beautiful and powerful and it reminded me of why we need to engage in this type of resistance and to celebrate our collective histories and public defiance of government repression. The students gave us all a gift today!