Elgin High School students protest immigration enforcement with walkout, march
Carrying signs with messages like “my parents aren’t criminals” and “kids shouldn’t live in fear,” more than a thousand Elgin High School students walked out of the school just after noon on Wednesday to march in protest of federal immigration enforcement.
Multiple students estimated that about three-quarters of their roughly 2,500 classmates participated.
“We want people to see that we can make a difference and that what we’re doing is important,” senior Silvia Scimonelli said.
The roughly 2-mile march along frequently snow-covered sidewalks took the students from the school to Chicago Street, where they headed west to Willard Avenue, then south to Villa Street and back to the school.
The protest follows a similar event at Elgin Area School District U-46’s Streamwood High School. Walkouts are also planned in the coming days at Larkin and South Elgin high schools.
Freshman Jamison Vaskin said he took part because “what is happening in America is 100% not OK.”
“I’m out here because of the dehumanization that’s happening in our country,” he said. “The attack on our Constitution and our rights, the constant abuse that ICE is inflicting on our citizens, the murder of American citizens. It is heinous.”
Matthew Napoles donned a sombrero and carried a portable speaker while leading his classmates in songs and chants. He said he was there to “show ICE that we obviously don’t like them.”
“They always try to take away the people that we love, and I’m just trying to keep them safe,” he said.
A statement from the school district said the walkout was “initiated by a group of students who wished to express their views about an issue that is important to them.”
The district sent a communication to parents on Tuesday to make them aware of the walkout and encouraged families to have conversations about “respectful expression, civic engagement, and making responsible choices while at school.”
A spokesperson for the district said students who participated in the walkout were marked absent for missed instructional time, in accordance with district policy. Students were allowed back in after the protest.