SAN ANTONIO – East Central High School suspended roughly 30 students after they walked out of class in protest of Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Bexar County. The students left school without permission and walked down the street.
According to students, school staff yelled at them to return to class, but the students did not. The students told KSAT they were expressing their First Amendment right to protest.
About a dozen students held a press conference Thursday in response to 30 students being suspended.
“Across San Antonio, there’s been over 40 walkouts happening and there have been you know, no extreme pushback like this before,” Claire, a student with San Antonio Students for Peace, said.
Claire does not attend an East Central Independent School District school but planned the press conference alongside the organization Dare to Struggle.
“We just want to tell people and show people that we care,” Claire said. “We care about East Central, we care about these students, and we want them to feel heard.”
East Central ISD told KSAT the protest on Feb. 13 lasted five hours and that the district documented the following behaviors:
- Leaving assigned areas and exiting campus without authorization
- Refusing to return to campus when directed by administrators
- Refusing to identify themselves so parents could be contacted
- Loudly shouting profanities that disrupted classrooms and instruction
- Directing profanity toward administrators and law enforcement officers working to keep students safe near a busy roadway
- Engaging in unsafe actions near traffic (Highway 87)
- Making obscene gestures toward a passing special needs bus
- Entering a vehicle driven by a non-parent or guardian without permission
“Students received a combination of In-School Suspension and Out-of-School Suspension based on their individual conduct,” the district wrote. “Students were not disciplined for their message, beliefs, or viewpoints related to immigration or any political issue.”
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