Students at RAHS walk out to protest ICE

Over 700 students walked out of Roseville Area High School (RAHS) on Jan. 12 in a peaceful protest against ICE in Minnesota and to stand up for immigrants.

The student-led march began at 10:30 a.m. this morning when students began flowing out of the high school toward the parking lot of Grace Church and lasted for about an hour. A couple dozen community members wearing bright reflective vests were already there to show support and help keep the students safe, many of them parents or grandparents with children at the high school or other schools in the district. There were also a couple of state legislators and activists from the group Justice Frontline Aid. Roseville Police closed off the streets and stood by along the route.

“We wanted to come out here and let everyone know that we’re not just gonna be okay with what’s happening because the administration says it’s okay . . . I think it's really important that other people don't just sit by idly,” RAHS junior Bence Jecsi said at the protest.

Community observers have reported ICE around Roseville inside and outside of restaurants, stores, gas stations, hotels, and city streets and highways around the community in the past few days, including witnessing arrests.

“I'm here because I think it's important to stand up what you believe in and stand up for and support our peers and community members of color and all come together and try to make a difference,” junior Ava Schmitz said.

Marie Lynch said her granddaughter is a high school student at the march. She wanted to make sure the kids were safe and also wanted the students to know that the community supports them.

“It's just been a very difficult three, four days and I don't know what else to say. You know, I remember doing this when I was their age and I didn't think I'd be doing it when I'm 78. Here we are,” Lynch said.

State House Representative Leigh Finke (HD 66A) and State Senator Clare Omou Verbeten (SD 66) joined the group of community members supporting the students.

“I'm here to support our students who are using their voice to speak up against what is happening in our communities and the oppressive, violent influx of ice and the chaos that they're bringing. And if our young people are speaking up, I'm going to be there to support them,” Finke said.

Verbeten was there for the same reason and said she thought it was “amazing” that the students took the initiative to plan this protest.

“ICE is honestly everywhere across our state right now. It's been really scary. Of course, we saw the murder of Renee Good in Minneapolis. But, there's been US citizens who've been detained. There's been a number of really dangerous situations for both folks that they've been capturing or people who have been observing. [ICE agents] are not making our community safe. They're really not. They're actually escalating things. They're breaking the law, and I would like them to leave and just get out of our community,” Verbeten said.

“But I'm also really proud of our students first for leading this walkout to say we want them out. We know that immigrants make our community strong, and we support our immigrants here and we protect each other and keep each other safe," Verbeten said.

Jecsi said that it was “heartwarming” to see so many community members waiting for his fellow students in the parking lot.

"I didn't expect all these people to be here, like this other organization. Because last time we had a walk out, it was just us. So when I saw these people, I was kind of moved. Like, this is really our community that's showing up,” Jecsi said.

The students gathered in the church parking lot to receive instructions from a student leader and then they marched north on Hamline to the bridge over Highway 36, which was closed to traffic. Students lined both sides of the bridge and held signs to the vehicles driving on the highway below. Cars honked as students chanted and cheered from bridge.

“As a person of color, it means a lot for my community. You know, they're being terrorized by ICE, and even people who are innocent and people who are not of color are also being murdered and treated horribly. And I just think that it’s beautiful that we can all come together and potentially push them away and save more lives,” said Mari Franklin, a junior at RAHS.

The march was fully led by students, who coordinated with the high school administration. Officer Abdi Warsame, School Resource Officer, told the Roseville Reader that as soon as he learned about the planned protest, he contacted the rest of the Roseville Police Department to “make sure the students were safe.”

Delon Smith, Associate Superintendent, said that Roseville Area School District is a “student-centered district” and administration was supportive of their choice to protest. If the adults had planned it, they would not have scheduled it over the lunch hour, but Smith said this is what the students wanted to do.

The presence of ICE in Minnesota and in cities in the Roseville Area School District is impacting students and staff at every school. There are students and staff who aren’t coming to school right now because they are afraid, and others who continue to show up through their fear, not knowing if they’ll make it home.

“We continue to try to find ways to continue to still be there for those families, continue to give us some educational options so that they're not missing out on education. But we also understand that right now, when you have to decide between, like, send my kid to school and never see them again—some of these things that we think are so important are just not as important as they used to be,” Smith said.

The bulk of the time during the protest was on the bridge, but then the students turned around and marched on the street back toward County Rd B2 and took that all the way to Lexington Ave. where they stopped for a moment of silence for Renee Good who was killed by an ICE agent last week in Minneapolis.

Superintendent Jenny Loeck was there to observe the protest and said she appreciated all the community observers and the Roseville Police Department for their support.

“I continue to be so incredibly proud of our student voice expressed today at Roseville Area High School in peaceful protest of current immigration policies. Kids were displaying their brilliance today and standing up for their values. We honor that,” Loeck said.

Last week, Loeck sent an email to district families about the district’s protocol if there are ICE agents on district grounds, which include denying access to the buildings unless they come with a signed judicial warrant. If ICE is ever present, the district will immediately notify families from the affected school.

This afternoon, Loeck sent an email to all district families saying that all field trips were canceled for the rest of January.

“Recent federal enforcement activity across the Twin Cities metro area has created unpredictable and rapidly changing conditions in several areas. Out of an abundance of caution, and with student safety as our highest priority, we believe it is best to pause all field trips at this time,” Loeck wrote.