On February 6, hundreds of Olympus and Skyline High School students walked out of their classes in protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The two rival schools came together at Big Cottonwood Park and spoke out against ICE in speeches, talking about how it affects them and why they are protesting.
Olympus and Skyline students left their high schools at around 11:20 a.m. and marched down to Big Cottonwood Park while protesting against ICE. At Big Cottonwood Park, students crowded together to listen to each other’s speeches. Many students had their speeches planned out to have their voices heard.
As students walked down, chanting could be heard that was critical of ICE. Things like, “ICE out! Right now!” were said, expressing how they want ICE off the streets.
Students in the protest each had their own reasons for being there to protest.
Lucy Lofton, a co-advisor for the Olympus walkout, said, “I want families to be together rather than torn apart. I want this country to be united and a safe place for everybody to come.”
Lena Staniszewska, a student at the protest who comes from Germany and Poland, explains that her family was impacted by the German Nazis during World War II. She explains that she wishes she could have protested then but instead is using her voice now in this protest.
Ahtyana Afu, one of Skyline’s organizers for the protest, said, “I realize that there are a lot of people that can’t speak up and are afraid, but also it’s not fair to let one side get away with things and have all the glory, and all the speak.”
Andersen Quintero, Olympus’ advisor for the protest, explains that he thinks the first milestone to get over is districts, “I think the first milestone to get over is our districts and then state government, before we anything past that we have to focus on our community.”
Afu agreed “I hope that it opens the eyes of many more people to help protest. It may seem futile right now, but it’s giving hope to those so that they can come out and help fight the government for what we want.”
Staniszewska says she wants this to make a positive impact and wants it to catch people’s attention across the media, even in Europe.
“I hope this makes an impact by making this country safe for everybody rather than just the people with a certain skin color,” Lofton says, “and I don’t think it’s fair that ICE is taking people out when they have done no wrong. I want everybody to be able to live alongside each other equally without fear.”
There’s been a lot of different opinions and controversy around high schoolers leaving school to protest. Lofton said, “I don’t think that we should skip class to try to prove a point to the adults in office and adults in general. I think they should be able to see the problem with their fully developed frontal lobes.”
However, Quintero thinks that high school students protesting isn’t a problem and that kids are old enough to be protesting in high school, “I dont think its a problem I mean at this point kids are old enough to make their own decisions its like anything thats under middle school”
Regardless of individual opinions, high school students chose to protest because of the impact on those deported.
Lofton said, “They are human as much as we are and taking them and detaining them without transparency and separating loved ones does not make America stronger.”
Lofton continues to say that she believes that there should be peace and everyone should be equal, not one group of people being treated unfairly.
“Even though it doesn’t affect you directly, it will affect you in the long run,” said Quintero. “This affects everybody.”
