School is typically thought of as a safe space for students. When you return home for the day, you expect your parents to be there. For some students, there is a growing fear that this could change.

President Donald Trump’s immigration policies have support at the state level, which have led to immgration raids in Austin by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agency. As of March 15, there have been dozens of deportations, according to online sources.

Growing deportation rates are most prevalent in geographic locations zoned within Crockett High School but this is not the only area where this is happening. These neighborhoods have kids playing in the streets, older houses and apartments in need of renovations.

As a form of protest, community gathered for “Day without Immigrants.” A day without immigrants, which was held on Feb. 16, was a day where people protested against the immigration policies that has been happening. On that day a total of exactly 20,008 students were absent in the school district Thursday, compared to only 4,216 the previous day. AISD says they have 83,591 students in 130 schools — that’s almost 24 percent of their students marked as absent, according to KXAN.

“Custodians and cafeteria workers did not attend school on that day and no teachers were absent. A student told me about his concerns and when I heard that it broke my heart. I kept thinking of how families are being broken over this”. Casey Elementary teacher, Tamara Fuentes said.

Madi Gamino used to attend Bowie High School and now attends Crockett High School. Her sister, Briana Gamino attends Bowie and noticed something different.

“When the raids started happening, students started disappearing and teachers were distressed. On Immigration Day, classes were so empty that teachers didn’t want to do the original lessons.” Crockett Senior Madi Gamino said.

“At Bowie it felt like a normal school day, I was thinking about skipping but I just decided to stay instead.” Bowie senior Briana Gamino said.

Since Trump’s inauguration, there have been other forms of student protest other than the day without immigrants. Walkouts have happened at a number of different schools in Austin ISD.

“We support our students in being politically active and are proud of them for sharing their
voice; however, I would say the best place to do that during a school day is in the classroom. We are proud to have talented teachers who can facilitate these types of conversations in the classroom and use them as learning opportunities. We do not condone
students skipping school, but rather would suggest they bring that passion to the classroom,” AISD Superintendent Paul Cruz said.

Our principal has also heard about these walkouts that are happening in Austin ISD and how they have affected Bowie.

“I think that it’s a great way to express how they feel. If they want to walkout, there is nothing that we at AISD can do about it. I just want their safety to come first in events like these. Principal Susan Leos said.

School officials were made aware of this and no efforts were made to prevent students from walking out, but the district “highly discourages it.” “We want to give our students a place in our schools to talk about the issues regarding anything,” School district spokesman Jacob Barrett said “We want our school to be a safe space, not a space that they want to walk out of.” Any students who walk out will receive an unexcused absence.”

Our principal leaves us with this,
“ All students are important to me and to all of our staff members here at Bowie. We all recognize that each student here has individual needs, and we are prepared to support all students academically, socially, and emotionally.” Susan Leos said.