We lost count at just over 100 students braving temperatures hovering at freezing just after classes let out on Friday to exercise their First Amendment right to protest ICE. The Howell event was one of a series of recent high school walkouts and protests against ICE taking place across the country.
Looking at those kids peacefully assembled, trying to keep warm, it was hard to believe that this is what some folks in the community lost their social media minds over, and what state Rep. Jason Woolford threatened the Howell Public Schools about.
While today’s after-school protest lacked the double exclamation points of students actually walking out of class, it was effective. The kids were as peaceful and polite as could be, and many drivers along Grand River Avenue honked their approval. The handmade signs were definitely PG. “History has its eyes on you,” said one sign, inspired by Lin Manuel Miranda’s musical “Hamilton”; one quoted international superstar Bad Bunny that “We’re Americans,” while another quoted Billie Eilish at the Grammy Awards: “No one is illegal on stolen land.”
These kids showed the community that while some social media discourse went low, they took their protest high. We should all be proud of them.
This is what democracy looks like.
