ROCK SPRINGS — Students at Rock Springs High School walked out of class Wednesday morning to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
More than 20 students and their supporters stood across the street from the high school, most of whom were vocal against ICE. One high school senior, Trayden Starkey, held a sign supporting ICE and called for peaceful discussions about ICE’s role and its actions. Some of the students later moved their protest to the intersection of Dewar Drive and Gateway Boulevard.
The Rock Springs Police Department responded to the high school with four patrol vehicles, one of which was a K-9 unit. School administrators declined to answer any questions about the school’s response to the planned protest, referring SweetwaterNOW’s questions to the district’s central administration office. The high school administrators who spoke with SweetwaterNOW also ordered the reporter to leave the premises and barred them from speaking or photographing students at the school. SweetwaterNOW complied with this order and the reporter immediately relocated to the public sidewalk facing the school.
Students outside the high school SweetwaterNOW spoke with said teachers were ordering students to go directly to class prior to the planned walk out, with a few saying school administrators threatened students with truancy violations if they participated in the walk out. Meghan Jensen, a mother of a RSHS student who participated in the protest, corroborated with that statement about students being threatened with truancy, saying Assistant Principal Steve Akers was the administrator making the threat.
Jensen said she participated because students’ learning was already disrupted by misinformation from law enforcement that she said made them feel unsafe.
“You can’t learn if you don’t feel safe,” she said.
Superintendent Joseph Libby was unavailable for comment as of the publication of this post. Kayla McDonald, the district’s communications coordinator, later emailed SweetwaterNOW a statement regarding the walk out, though did not speak with the publication about specific questions it has about the event.
“The district recognizes that civic engagement and the respectful expression of viewpoints are important parts of the educational experience,” McDonald wrote. “We believe it is valuable for students to learn how to engage thoughtfully in civic life, including understanding their rights and responsibilities. Our priority remains maintaining a safe and orderly learning environment for all students and staff. As with any situation on campus, school administrators are monitoring activities to ensure student safety and that school operations continue as normally as possible. At this time, the district will not comment further on individual student actions, but we remain committed to supporting students as they learn to express themselves responsibly and respectfully.”
SweetwaterNOW attempted to contact the RSPD for this article, but calls were not returned as of the publication of this post. For now, questions about how the department determined how it would respond to the high school and why it dispatched the number of officers it did remain unanswered.
