Civil Disobedience: Students Exercise their Rights
Civil Disobedience: Students Exercise their Rights
Lauren Badger
On January 28, 2026, students from schools in Flagstaff participated in an optional walkout to protest against ICE, or Immigration, Customs and Enforcement officers. A digital poster was spread around Instagram, leading to major student turnout of over 700 students from schools across the city. High schoolers from Flagstaff Arts & Leadership Academy, Flagstaff High School, and Coconino High School, as well as middle school students and even young children showed up to voice their concerns. Students walked out of their schools knowing that they would be marked absent from their classes.
Word about the walkout was spread around the internet beginning on the 26th, two days before the walkout. The digital poster stated, “Attention all schools across Arizona schools! Bring signs and walk to your nearest main road. Bring your friends, involve the community. This has to stop. This is a peaceful protest. We as protesters mean no harm to any person or thing along the path we are walking.” This was most likely a result of Alex Pretti being shot and killed on January 24th in Minnesota for defending a woman against ICE
agents. The walkout began at 11:45 AM, a few minutes before third hour was to end for Flag High students, who then walked down to City Hall with their signs to begin the peaceful protest.
Students brought numerous signs, sometimes passing them around to their friends. Signs ranged from “NO STATE TERROR. STOP ICE.” to “IMMIGRANTS BUILT AMERICA” to “IF YOUR VOICE HELD NO POWER, THEY WOULDN’T TRY TO SILENCE YOU.” Students of all different races and backgrounds joined together to protest for the safety of all people in the US who are currently being targeted by ICE, as well as for the innocent people being shot by these federal agents. Students participated in this walkout for some of the following reasons:
- Protesting for their families who immigrated here
- Advocating for their friend’s safety
- Encouraging people to act
- Encouraging people to go out and vote and protest peacefully when they are unhappy with their government.
Flagstaff High School senior Molly said she hoped that, “people realize that it's a big issue and that kids are skipping school to try and get their voices heard.” Both KNAU and AZ Daily Sun covered the event, interviewing students at City Hall while they are exercising their first amendment right as they look to get an insider's view on the minds of the future generations.
However, despite the overwhelming amount of support and participation the walkout received, some adults and other students disagreed with the peaceful protest, going to such lengths as to flip off students, or even rolling coal, which is the act of deliberately emitting large clouds of soot from a car’s exhaust pipe. Despite this, student protesters continued to peacefully practice their first amendment rights for up to 4 hours in front of Flagstaff City Hall.
A meeting was held on January 29th at lunch for students who attended the walkout to discuss their feelings with Dr. Miller, the principal at Flagstaff High School, City Council members, a Deputy from the Flagstaff Police Department, and the Superintendent of Flagstaff Unified School District, Mike Penca. However, many of the students who attended the meeting, myself included, were unhappy with how it turned out: students felt as though they were unable to air out their concerns on school policy regarding ICE on school campus or on the neighboring reservations, and many students felt as though the superintendent wasn’t listening to their concerns; instead, advocating for his own opinion that the walkout was a major disruption within the school. The students who attended the walkout felt as though this was not the case, as they walked out silently, causing no disruption other than leaving their classrooms to go to City Hall and protest for their beliefs. Flag High senior Olivia said that the walkout, “shows that even students know that what's going on in the country is not right…, and we need to make a message, and as long as it's big enough, maybe it'll make something happen.”