Freshman Abbie “Tillie” Farr organized a school-sanctioned walkout protesting the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement before students’ 4A period on Thursday, Jan. 29.
This demonstration follows a nationwide trend of walkouts, with students at dozens of schools across metro Atlanta participating.
“I had a big group chat of people who were all against ICE, and, with two other people, I started trying to think of ways we could do something,” Farr said. “We came up with the idea of a walkout because a lot of other schools had done it. So we went on social media, and we just posted a bunch of things against ICE, and we followed people from our school. We printed out flyers and stuff, and we just tried to spread them as much as possible, and it got people excited.”
The school allowed students to protest until 2:30 p.m., when they were expected to return to class. During this time, protest organizers spoke up against ICE, leading chants and naming victims. Senior Audrey Ngasseu Samen was not initially involved with the planning, but she used her personal megaphone to deliver a speech in front of the student body.
“I’m the type of person who stands for all human equality,” Ngasseu Samen said. “So I just thought, ‘I’m gonna come down here, and I’m just gonna see if I could say a little something,’ especially because I know that the people that I’m friends with are in kind of different cliques, but this was kind of a way for me to reach all of them.”
ICE detentions have surged, with more than 70,000 immigrants now in custody and a rising number of reported deaths. Recent enforcement actions have also driven an over 2,000% increase in the number of people with no criminal record being held in ICE facilities. Freshman Ella Rogers chose to attend the protest because she disagrees with ICE’s practices.
“I came here because I feel very passionately about standing up to ICE, and I think that the way that the organization has been doing things is just extremely cruel and inhumane,” Rogers said. “Most of the immigrants that come here just want a better life and are innocent people. It is messed up in my opinion.”
Senior Riya Bhatia agrees with Rogers and attended the walkout to advocate for her beliefs.
“I feel like this is an ongoing issue that keeps worsening and needs to be spoken about,” Bhatia said. “ICE has caused far too much pain on various innocent individuals and families, and it feels like no change is happening.”
According to Atlanta’s chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, more than 75 metro Atlanta schools are confirmed to participate in organized walkouts. Ngasseu Samen believes it is important for young people to stay politically active.
“For so long, I was okay with letting things that I felt uncomfortable with happen because I didn’t think my voice was going to change anything, but man was I wrong,” Ngasseu Samen said. “I would say, ‘My voice is powerful,’ but it feels right to say our voices are powerful. That is why it is important to use them.”
Farr hopes the student-led protests will prove to adolescents that they can inspire change in their communities.
“I feel like there’s been a lot of injustice in the world lately, and a lot of people talk about how upset they are about it, but nobody really seems to do anything,” Farr said. “I think it’s important to make your voice heard, especially because it feels hard to have any power to do anything when you’re still a kid. Organizing this for my school was the best way for me to put myself out there and make a change.”
