As some students at Howell High School get ready to take their First Amendment rights out for a spin, a partisan social media kerfuffle is smoldering, with state Rep. Jason Woolford throwing fuel on the fire. The first-term state legislator shook a threatening finger at the district in a letter read at Monday’s meeting of the Howell Public Schools Board of Education by member Jason Bedford.
For those of you who don’t live on Facebook, here are the details: there’s a Howell High School student walkout scheduled for 12:45 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 19, intended to be a “peaceful protest of ICE and the current Trump administration.” Now, brace yourself (and for those wearing them, go ahead and clutch your pearls): one of the students helping organize the event is the son of the district’s superintendent, a fact that Woolford referred to not once but twice in his letter.
This walkout is part of a nationwide effort by high school students to protest ICE, and they’ve been taking place in the last week or so across Michigan. The walkouts come at a time when support for ICE is plummeting — even among Republicans.
There have been posts on Howell-centered Facebook groups with comments ginning up outrage: “Is this where we’re heading?” “Parents better be storming the office.” “Just walk out of the country if you don’t like it here.” And on and on.
One post even called for the resignation of Superintendent MacGregor because his son is one of the organizers.
It’s interesting to note that not a single person wringing their hands on Facebook spoke up at the meeting’s call to the public; it’s not clear whether any of them even showed up. But every person who showed up to speak was supportive of the students and the planned walkout.
The walkout organizers appear to be super well-organized and well-intended, consistently stressing that the protest is to be peaceful and respectful. But don’t take my word for it — here is the info they’ve circulated:
State Rep. Woolford’s letter to “Superintendent MacGregor, Members of the Board, and fellow community members,” called out MacGregor for raising an independent kid with the courage of his convictions. It also said the planned student protest “raises serious concerns about the use of taxpayer-funded instructional time.”
And then it sure sounded like Woolford kind of threatened the district: “While schools are not penalized for student viewpoints, districts can place taxpayer-funded education dollars at risk when instructional hours are used for non-educational activities or when administrators fail to enforce policies consistently,” he wrote. “Continued disregard for these standards may invite audits, corrective action, or scrutiny from state or federal authorities, including the U.S. Department of Education.”
If the walkout were instead organized to protest all those pesky trans athletes invading high school sports, locker rooms and bathrooms (for the record, there were two in Michigan last school year), it doesn’t strain credulity to imagine Woolford may have instead penned a tribute that he would have introduced in the Michigan House.
What is concerning to me as a resident of the Howell Public Schools district and a constituent of Woolford’s is that he extrapolated a “peaceful protest of ICE” to mean a “rally promoting anti-law enforcement.” If Woolford is going to criticize the district, he ought to be accurate.
In a serendipitous moment, the district’s three school resource officers from the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office and the Howell Police Department were on hand Monday to talk about their work in the schools. The thread running through their presentation was how they build relationships with the students in order to keep them safe. It was clear the officers — on call 24/7, by the way — are committed to and enjoy their jobs; comments made by board members and the public (including a couple students) during the meeting showed a great appreciation for the officers.
The planned student walkout isn’t anti-law enforcement, not by a long shot. It’s anti-ICE. That’s a big distinction.
I’ve covered this county for over 35 years, and I can say without hesitation that those of us who live in the Howell Public Schools District today are blessed by the steady, thoughtful leadership of our school board and its administrators. There were years when the district was a steaming hot pile of dysfunctional mess that dominated headlines and stoked continual controversy. Today we have a school district of which we can all be proud.
There have been student walkouts in Howell in the past and there will be student walkouts in the future; we live in a democracy, after all, and we’ve survived them, whether we’ve agreed with them or not. What’s concerning at this moment is not that some of our students are planning an anti-ICE walkout during the final period of the school day, but that there are adults in our community telling them their opinions and convictions don’t matter, and worse, that they’re wrong and deserve to be punished.
“Instructional hours are paid for by hardworking taxpayers who expect that time to be devoted to learning, not demonstrations or events that undermine respect for law enforcement and the rule of law while students should be in class,” Woolford wrote.
He needs to remember that hardworking taxpayers also pay his salary.
What I know right now is the people spewing on social media have little relation to people showing up to take responsibility and be counted. The Howell High School students planning to use their Constitutionally protected First Amendment right to make their voices heard will be learning their lessons and taking whatever lumps come their way. We should be proud of them.
This is what democracy looks like.
