Hundreds of Hays CISD students leave campus to protest: district
Hays CISD students walk out to protest ICE
Students at several Central Texas schools, including in Hays CISD, walked out of class and off campus Monday to protest ICE operations. FOX 7 Austin's Jenna King has more.
HAYS COUNTY, Texas - Hays CISD says that hundreds of its students have left campus to stage protests.
This comes after students at 14 Austin ISD campuses participated in student-led demonstrations against Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week.
What we know:
Hays CISD says that several hundred students from five campuses walked out as part of the protests. The students were from:
- Hays High School
- Live Oak Academy High School
- Johnson High School
- Lehman High School
- Barton Middle School
According to the district, that is about five to 15% of the student population at each school on average, but the exact number of students that walked out is currently being calculated.
The walkouts began about 1 p.m. at four of the campuses with Lehman's walkout starting at 2:50 p.m.
The district says that it's presumed the walkouts were in protest of ICE operations.
What they're saying:
In a statement, the district said the protests were not condoned or enabled by Hays CISD and that leaving class without permission or skipping class is against district rules.
Students who left campus without permission during the school day will be receiving unexcused absences and may face other disciplinary action depending on if there was any other disruptive behavior.
The district then stated that due to safety being a priority, teachers and campus administrators were on hand to monitor the protests on campus "in an effort to preserve order and security."
Read the full statement below:
FOX 7 was at Lehman High School as hundreds of students walked out of their final period of the day around 2:50 p.m. Monday afternoon.
"It just popped up on Instagram that we were going to walkout to protest for ICE, and we saw Hays and other schools in the district were protesting so we decided to hop on too," said senior Alex Valencia.
"Me personally, my family came here to give me a better life and to give my siblings a better life and they pay taxes. We do everything just like all the citizens do. We do the same thing and we’re just trying to prove to everybody that we’re just human beings like everybody else," said senior Justin Martinez.
Others say they’ve seen the impacts of immigration enforcement firsthand.
"They took our uncle, we’re glad they already released him. We just hope it doesn’t happen with our other family members, and we just don’t want ICE here in Kyle, we just want to live a peaceful life," said junior Ivan Bercerra.
About 500 went to downtown Kyle, police say
Dig deeper:
The Kyle Police Department says about 500 students made their way to downtown Kyle.
Officers on scene monitoring traffic and pedestrian safety noticed a minor in possession of alcohol, which resulted in the arrests of two juveniles.
One juvenile was charged with assault on a public servant, resisting arrest, interfering with public duties, consumption, and possession of alcohol by a minor.
The other juvenile was charged with resisting arrest and interfering with public duties. Additional charges may be forthcoming.
KPD says that the arrests were unrelated to the walkout.
Other schools also had walkouts
Big picture view:
Other area school districts also reported walkouts.
Pflugerville ISD confirmed some of its students walked from campus to the justice center on Monday afternoon.
Manor ISD says students from Manor High School, Manor New Tech High School and Manor New Tech Middle School also participated in walkouts.
The Source: Information in this report comes from Hays CISD, reporting/interviews by FOX 7 Austin's Jenna King and previous reporting