Students across 14 campuses in AISD protested on January 30 in response to recent immigration enforcement and customs activities. Later that day, seniors Hannah Fellers, Lyla Womack, and Yazzie Bukhari created an Instagram account named @bowieprotests to promote an Anti-ICE walkout on February 13. 

“I really enjoy seeing people exercising their right to speak out,” Fellers said. “I think that these protests are such a good way to bring community and make people feel less alone, especially with what ICE is doing and isolating people and having people stay in their homes because they feel unsafe.”

According to AISD guidelines, leaving campus during the school day to participate in a walk-out will result in an unexcused absence. As long as students do not affect the educational environment for other students, they are able to protest. 

“I always think that when students have opinions and want to voice them, it’s always a sign of being active in your community and in society,” Academic Director Kaylit Brett said. “We have guidelines, and they’re really just about making sure that y’all are being safe and not walking into traffic and not doing anything violent towards each other and things like that.”

According to Administrator Substitute, Dr. Cathryn Mitchell, Campus administrators and Austin ISD Police will monitor on-campus protests within 300 feet of the building. In an email from the AISD superintendent, Matias Segura, he stated that AISD is committed to the safety of its students, regardless of whether they are on campus or not. Once the walkout moves more than 300 feet from campus, all administrators and staff will remain on campus, and local law enforcement will be monitoring the off-campus students for safety. 

“A lot of us from Black Student Alliance (BSA) are planning on walking out,” BSA President Derrick Osobase said. “I feel like we share a lot of the same values that we hold at BSA, and people are being discriminated against, and we want to stand against that.”