On Tuesday, January 13, over 300 students walked out of Westerville North during third period in protest of ICE operations in the Columbus area. The walkout also comes after an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Good in Minnesota, and an off-duty ICE agent shot and killed Keith Porter in Los Angeles within the last month.
According to 10 TV, in December, there was a “targeted ICE operation called Operation Buckeye” where 280 arrests were made across Ohio.
Westerville North student organizer, Clay (last name removed for confidentiality), first got the idea of a walkout when he saw Dublin Scioto High School students who did their own walkout in protest of ICE operations.
Clay said “what is stopping us from doing the same thing?” He then brought in two other students at North, Amina Kourouma (‘27) and Vanessa Rubio (‘26), to help with organizing and taking the necessary steps.
Rubio, who lives near a hotel where ICE agents are staying on the North side of Columbus says “it was effecting my community”. According to another 10 TV article, there were “noise demonstration protests” being held outside a hotel where the “Ohio Homeland Security [was] hosting a two-day counterterrorism conference”
In the days leading up to the walkout, the three students were spreading the word, handing out fliers and posting on social media. They had help from people from the Westerville Progressive Alliance and Trans Experimental Association that gave advice on how to conduct a walkout and helped contact news outlets. Clay said, “We were stressing out for four days straight.”
“The main concern with us was just the consequence of going out,” Clay said, after being told by administration they could get anything from an unexcused absence to a lunch detention.
At around 9:20 a.m., students gathered around outside in front of the flagpole with signs, flags, and their voices. One student at North, Elena Diaz (‘28) said, “Even though it’s not happening to you or near you, you need to stand up and you need to start using your voice.”
Another student, Tullia Ventling (‘27), said, “People are being ripped away from their families, they’re being killed, they’re being put into awful situations, and that is not America.”
Students walked around the perimeter of the school twice, chanting and holding up their signs. They stopped in various places, where multiple students gave speeches on the issue at hand, including Kuroma. She said “getting the opportunity to share my story and my family’s story, made me feel proud”.
The protest had hundreds of students and Kouroma says it was “amazing and impactful”. It also garnered attention from 10 TV who posted a video on Facebook about the walkout.
The other two Westerville high schools, South and Central also have walkouts planned.
