The ‘National Shutdown’ protest reaches high school students, staff
Another general strike is underway in protest of the Department of Homeland Security tactics that it has used to carry out President Donald Trump’s deportation goals. This time, it’s happening at the direction of college students.
Student groups at the University of Minnesota organized the “National Shutdown: No Work. No School. No shopping. Stop Funding ICE” in response to Border Patrol agents fatally shooting Alex Pretti, 37, according to their posts on Instagram. The shutdown appeared to gain steam after singer-actress Ariana Grande shared the Black Student Union’s Instagram post about the boycott.
“The only way for us to get justice for Alex Pretti, Renee Good, and the countless people murdered by ICE is for the shut down to go national,” the group said in the post. “No work. No school. No shopping. Vote no to ICE funding.”
It’s gained the attention of several national civil rights and activist groups, such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations, CODEPINK and the 50501 group, which has planned No Kings protests throughout the country.
Leaders haven’t shared much on the national protest’s goals beyond encouraging people to participate. Their demands centered on funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which comes via DHS. Democratic senators struck a deal with Trump late Thursday to avoid another government shutdown that only funded DHS for two weeks. A separate package of bills failed in the Senate as eight Republicans joined all Democrats to vote against it.
High school students can face discipline
Walking out of a high school in protest is a slippery slope for districts that want to take action. The American Civil Liberties Union of California warns students about laws requiring students to attend school, meaning a high schooler could be disciplined for missing classes.
“However, the school cannot punish you for missing school to participate in political protest more harshly than it punishes students for missing school for any other purpose,” according to the ACLU.
For walking out, a student could be disciplined for being disruptive, which districts said could happen on Friday.
In Georgia, the Cobb, DeKalb and Fulton counties’ school districts warned students against walking out during classes as they’d cause disruptions and could be penalized, Atlanta TV station 11Alive reported.
“Anyone who disrupts the school day, including unauthorized walkouts, will receive consequences in accordance with district policies,” a Cobb County School District spokesperson told the TV station. “Those consequences include out-of-school suspension and the potential loss of parking privileges, sports, and extracurricular privileges.”
Marietta High School students worked with Superintendent Grant Rivera on alternate plans, but still walked out en masse, the Marietta Daily Journal reported.
A district can preemptively close if it expects a protest to be overwhelmingly disruptive or cause too many personnel absences.
In Arizona, the national protest caused the Tucson Unified School District to close 22 of its 88 schools Friday due to low staffing, according to local television station 13 News. One student told the TV station that they would be protesting at the Tucson Federal Building.
In Colorado, Aurora Public Schools canceled classes after learning about a growing number of student and staff absences, Denver TV station Denver7 reported.
Still, high school students across the nation defied the warnings and walked out.
National strike not succeeding in Minnesota
The general strike in Minneapolis gained national attention. More than 700 local businesses closed their doors, unions built support in the workplace and schools in the Twin Cities closed, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported on Jan. 23. The strike stretched beyond the stoppages as thousands protested in downtown Minneapolis for Operation Metro Surge to end and for Jonathan Ross to face charges in the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good.
The Minnesota newspaper reported that this week’s strike didn’t hit the same mark as the last. The national strike also lacked the endorsement from Minneapolis’ labor unions, immigration and other local organizations.
Only a handful of small businesses were closed Friday, including Angry Catfish Bicycle and Coffee, which Pretti frequented. The shop has a memorial bike ride planned for Pretti on Saturday.
The owner of Volstead’s Emporium told the Minnesota Star Tribune that she could not close her business for a second Friday in a row. She said sales on Fridays and Saturdays are usually between $16,000 and $20,000, but last week’s closure and the killing of Pretti netted $4,500 on Saturday.
“I want to be able to help the community, but we can’t if we’re not here,” owner Bessie Snow told the publication.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
