Mariana “Mar” Pastor was scrolling on her phone after a Sparrows Point High School girls basketball game three weeks ago when she saw video online of federal agents shoot and kill Renee Nicole Good.
The high school senior dropped her phone in shock and horror.
“It was kind of like, OK, now anybody’s a target,” Pastor recalled thinking. “No skin color is protecting anyone anymore.”
The Mexican-American turned to fellow senior and her best friend, Carmen Butrim, 17, to plan a school walkout to protest the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis and across the country.
Pastor — who said she’s experienced some racism attending Sparrows Point High School in predominantly white Edgemere — decided to channel her rage. She and Butrim created an Instagram account to spread awareness and reach students.
Participation and interest quickly spread across multiple Baltimore County Public Schools, Pastor said.
So far, they said, students from Dundalk, Eastern Tech, George Washington Carver Center for Arts and Technology, Kenwood, Lansdowne, Loch Raven, Overlea, Parkville, Patapsco, Perry Hall and Pikesville high schools have committed to walk out of school at 11:30 a.m. Friday, Feb. 6, to protest ICE.
Students from Baltimore City College are organizing their own walkout next Thursday, Feb. 5, according to a social media post from the school’s Students Organizing a Multicultural + OpenSociety (SOMOS) group.
“We want students to realize and remember that they have a voice and they can speak up,” Butrim said. “You don’t have to be grown … to know right from wrong.”
Student walkouts are becoming increasingly common.
Hundreds of students skipped class at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda last week and were joined by several other Montgomery County schools in the low-20s temperatures.
Walt Whitman High School students hold signs during a walkout at the school in Bethesda earlier this month. (Valerie Plesch for The Banner)
On Wednesday, students walked out in the East Bay Area of California, while others led the way in Tucson, Arizona, the week prior. More than 30,000 students walked out of classes in Charlotte, North Carolina, in November.
Oboyinde Onijala, spokesperson for Baltimore County Public Schools, said the district is not aware of any planned protests but affirmed that students have the right to demonstrate.
“Students have the right to organize and assemble peacefully,” she said. “If a student decides to participate in a walkout or demonstration, they would need to do so in a safe manner that is in alignment with any guidance and rules provided by school leadership.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security’s regional ICE office in Baltimore did not respond to a request for comment.
Use your voice
Pastor, who is president of Sparrows Point’s Student Racial Justice Alliance, knows many students at her school won’t support the work she and Butrim are doing.
“At school they definitely have no shame in saying terrible things about other people in front of them, behind their back,” she said.
The 18-year-old explained that she’s had students bark at her, throw candy at her on Halloween, spit on her shoes, question her citizenship and threaten to tear up a Pride flag she brought to school.
“I’m a strong minority,” Pastor added. “I won’t let it silence me and I don’t want anyone else to feel silenced.”
Potential backlash only fuels Pastor and Butrim, who recognize that taking a stand in a less-than-accepting environment is as important as inspiring students who attend more diverse schools.
“It’s one thing to take pride in a viewpoint with people that share the same views as you, but it’s a whole ‘nother thing to try and get people that don’t share the same views as you to look at it the way that you do,” Butrim said.
Pastor, right, who is president of Sparrows Point’s Student Racial Justice Alliance, knows many students at her school won’t support the work she and Butrim are doing. (Jessica Gallagher/The Banner)
They said their goal is to spread awareness about how Americans’ civil rights are being violated and inspire students at other schools to start social justice clubs and stay informed about what’s happening in their communities.
Suwilanji Siame, a Perry Hall High School senior and student council president, said she’s motivated to walk out next week because of her family, who immigrated to the U.S. from Zambia.
Even though Siame is a U.S. citizen, and her relatives have been living here for 40-plus years, the threat of discrimination and detention by federal agents is real.
“This really hits home for me and for Perry Hall students,” she said. “Perry Hall is very diverse. I know people can relate to me … and what we’re seeing right now with ICE in our communities, we’re not OK with it.”
Pastor said, “If you have a voice, you better freaking use it because you might not be able to have a voice tomorrow.”
What will happen next week?
Pastor and Butrim are encouraging all students who want to participate in next week’s walkout to direct message them via their Instagram page, @bcpssocialjustice.
The plan is to bring school-appropriate posters and signs to school next Friday and walk out at 11:30 a.m. and rally at the football field, Pastor said.
“Make sure that if you are walking out … you know what you’re walking out for,“ Pastor added. ”Make sure you care about the cause and you’re not just going to just skip class.”
Both stressed that it’s important for students to stay on school grounds, and cited the BCPS student handbook, which says they have the “Right of Free Speech and Expression.”
The handbook states that “students’ right to assemble is subject to school authorities setting reasonable limits regarding the time, place, and way students may assemble.”
“Generally speaking, a student would not be suspended for participating in a walkout,” Onijala wrote in an email. “Now, if, during or even immediately following the walkout they engaged in behavior that is in direct violation of the Student Handbook, the school would provide appropriate consequences.”
She added that leadership from the individual campuses sets parameters around where on school grounds students can gather.
The spokesperson did not respond immediately to a question clarifying if participating students will receive an unexcused absence for walking out of class.
