At one o’clock on a Wednesday in Darien, you typically never see anyone in the streets, besides the occasional dog walker and kids on ebikes. And you definitely don’t see anyone outside in February.
However, on February 18th, there were hundreds of high schoolers out on the streets chanting, waving flags, holding posters, and playing music.
Hinsdale South students hosted a Walkout combined with Hinsdale Central students to protest against how the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is conducting its operations and to show support for Palestine.
“We started a walkout because we wanted to send a message to our community,” said Irene Garcia, a head organizer of the protest, “There are people who see the brutality behind ICE and are willing to stand up for those who couldn’t and for those who were afraid to speak up.”
Irene Garcia, Reny Copado, and Alexa Martinez were the lead organizers of Hinsdale’s Walkout.
The walkout didn’t seem possible at first.
“Irene was thinking about it, but I kept shutting down the idea since, like many others, I thought that nobody would go and we would have no support,” Copado said, “I’m glad she kept insisting and never gave up because we were able to plan this.”
Once Copado and Garcia solidified that they were going to organize the walkout on February 6th, they started an Instagram page dedicated to the walkout and spreading the word to others.
The Instagram page started to take off.
“I heard about the walkout when I saw people that I follow on Instagram reposting the first post the account had made,” said Kaitlyn Amolsch, a Junior at South.
Although the page was gaining a lot of attention, nothing had officially been planned in early February, and the page received many hate comments.
“Getting a lot of hate comments really made me doubt,” Copado said, “but thanks to my friends helping me plan this, I came to reason and ignore all the hate being made by people we see every day in school.”
The school administration also noticed the idea of the walkout at the same time.
“A staff member saw on social media that students were looking to do something on this day and told the deans,” said Jason Madl, the Director of Deans.
After the school administration found out about the walkout, there were three scheduled meetings between the administrators and organizers about the logistics of the walkout.
“It started with just kind of laying out what the students wanted to do,” Madl said, “In terms of where they wanted to meet, the beginnings of a route they may want to walk, or whether on campus was something they would consider a realistic option or something they would even consider.”
Through these meetings, the students planned all of the routes and logistics, and the administration communicated that safety was its main concern.
In between the meetings with the administration, the organizers began to create the route and other aspects of the walkout. Around this time, Martinez saw the account and joined Garcia and Copado’s efforts.
“I could say like two or three hours every other day, planning, talking, communicating,” Copado said, “but also the self-doubt, of if the walkout was going to work, took a lot of time.”
The initial plan for the walkout announced to the public on February 13th was that students would leave school at 12:24 and meet up near the Gym Doors and walk to Willowbrook Town Center. Students would receive an unexcused absence, but if they wanted to be excused, they could call into the office for a “mental health day”. Four days later, on the 16th, it was announced that students would leave right after 6th period, but still follow the plan outlined in the post before.
After this information was released to the public, students from Hinsdale Central reached out to find out if they could partner with the Hinsdale South students in their efforts.
“We were hesitant about it because we had our plans set and everything, but we wanted as many people to go to our walkout, so we said yes,” said Garcia.
After more talk with the school administration, the entire plan was changed, but it was more refined. Students would lead and scan out the doors at 12:31 pm after 4th period, and students would march to McDonald’s first. Then from there they would march to Willowbrook Town Center and end at Willow Pond, where they would meet Central Students.
The greatest change from the earlier information was that the district sent out an email that detailed that all absences would be marked as unexcused and could result in consequences. After hearing this, some students became worried about the consequences, since many did not want to get in trouble.
Madl explained more about the consequences that were unclear to most.
“I continually said, we support you, we support you… But I did not do a good enough job in the preliminary conferences, distinguishing what I meant when I said, we support you,” said Madl.
Since Hinsdale South is a public institution, it can’t endorse or disapprove of the protest’s actual content; rather, in this case, the word ‘support’ means Hinsdale South supports every student’s First Amendment rights. In the same way, since students were leaving class, consequences in accordance with district policy were going to take place.
“I decided not to go due to the possibility of getting detention because my parents would be mad at me,” said Aria Filbert, a freshman who wanted to go to the protest but couldn’t.
Others had differing opinions on the walkout:
“It was completely unnecessary and a waste of time,” Almosch said, “Although I appreciate the will and fight that kids in our school have, I believe it is better to take direct action, rather than walking out of school, which could hinder education.”
Even though there were possibilities of consequences, 220 South students walked out. They met outside the Circle Drive, scanning out with Madl during the passing period after sixth period.
“I was kinda nervous but very excited,” said Nayeli Ovalle, a freshman, “But as soon as I got outside, I saw how many people went.”
Once everyone had gathered, students started passing out signs and bringing flags from their cars. Then the students progressed to the McDonald’s, hearing honks and calling out different chants.
“It took some getting used to at first to walk on such a crowded sidewalk,” Ovalle said, “but it really shows how many people care.”
From the McDonald’s, the students marched to Willowbrook Town Center, where they crossed Kingery Highway to garner attention from drivers on the road. Many students left at this time, as they needed a way to get home or had an after-school activity.
Students then made their way to the final destination of Willow Pond, where they waited for Central to come and held out their signs to the street.
“Really, we are just here to protest against ICE because ICE hasn’t done anything good for our community,” said Aidan Davidson, a sophomore, when asked why he came to the walkout, “Because they kill innocents and take people from their homes and away from their families.”
Protesters waited for an hour until students from Hinsdale Central joined, where the students made their way closer to the crossway on Kingery for the organizers to speak to the crowd and make their final push and raise their signs high.
Hinsdale South’s Walkout demonstrates how students can use their First Amendment rights and how many students are passionate about this issue.
“We’ve been taught from a young age that you should treat others the way you want to be treated,” said Julian Angel, a senior, “but if it were the other way around they would be doing the same thing, protesting.”
