On February 11th, 2025, at 1:25 PM, reportedly hundreds of students from Centreville High School walked out of class to protest against the presence of Immigration and Custom Enforcement in the Fairfax County area. There were many empowering signs, one of them notably being “we are skipping out on our lessons to teach you one.”
The anonymous sophomore who organized the protest had worries about organizing this protest. “I think my main worry was that a lot of people weren’t going to come, mainly because I know that this school is full of people who don’t really tend to care about this kind of thing. And not just that, but the consequences too.”
Some of the consequences the organizer feared were the consequences her and other protestors would face were carried out by the Centreville Staff Administration. The admins tried to block students from protesting by threatening consequences such as suspension and detention.
Reportedly when students came back, admin recorded their student IDs and names.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE, did many things that started outrage throughout the country. Some of them included the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, which sparked countless protests and anger from citizens. Some of these protests include school walkouts that were tipped off throughout countless American schools. Many people believe that they were publicly executed and that people need to be more angry about their deaths.
“How many more lives need to be lost before this administration realizes that a political and partisan narrative is not as important as American values?” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said at a news conference hours after the shooting of Alex Pretti.
In the ICE walkout on February 11th, many people participated for different reasons. Some participated because they truly were against ICE’s actions, and some participated because they felt more inclined and reassured to go since they saw other people participating with them. It showed that Centreville High School and its community really cared about justice and current events.
“I kind of didn’t care. But once I started seeing other people and that they cared, and other people went, I guess I started thinking I can do this. That I’m not the only one,” reported an anonymous tenth grader that participated in the ICE Walkout.
On February 25th 2026, there was a lesson during the ROAR period that was shown to students throughout the school. The lesson informed students that they were able to freely express their opinions without disrupting lessons and education. Both teachers and students alike thought of this as a response to the ICE walkout two weeks earlier.
Overall, the ICE Walkout at Centreville High School accumulated the efforts and voices of many students. Though there were consequences that students could have faced from staff administration, the fact they decided to still protest despite knowing this left a resounding message that they are against ICE’s actions and want to spread awareness about them.
