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As Democrats and the Left continue to vilify Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and call for the agency’s demise, school walkouts to protest ICE have become commonplace at public schools across America with over 300 such demonstrations taking place over the past few months. Despite claims that these walkouts are “student led,” many are covertly organized and supported by school faculty and administrators. Students are only rarely punished for participating in these events despite the obvious rule-breaking involved in cutting class to hoist protest signs and chant slogans.
At Torrey Pines High School in San Diego, California, this lax attitude towards student protest hit an unexpected snag when one a brave student dared to speak out in support of ICE and condemn illegal immigration. Rather than champion the First Amendment rights of all students, the administration sought to punish and censor his pro-ICE views, applying a clear double standard regarding who is entitled to free speech and whose views must be suppressed.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) recounts:
On Feb. 6, hundreds of students at Torrey Pines High School peacefully staged a mid-school- day walkout to protest ICE and U.S. immigration enforcement policy. They held posters displaying statements including, “If You’re an I.C.E. Agent Ya Mom’s a Hoe!!,” “FUCK ICE,” and “ICE is KKK spelled differently.”
Yet, two weeks later, the school suspended a student for posting pro-ICE flyers reading “We ❤️ I.C.E. – Real Americans.” The school claimed the flyers, which caused no disruption at the school — and were displayed in a common area where other students have posted political material — nevertheless constituted “harassment” and “intimidation.”
This simple message of support for federal immigration law enforcement and for American citizens was labeled “demonizing and hateful” and deserving of punishment by school administrators while the anti-ICE walkout which violated school attendance rules and used profane and objectively offensive language in its signage was permitted to proceed without consequences to student organizers and participants.
It’s hard to imagine a clearer example of hypocrisy.
Former San Diego County Supervisor Candidate Amy Reichert drew attention to the situation with a viral post on X. “Lawyer up, @TorreyPinesHS,” she advised. “A student who carried a sign on school property saying ‘If you’re an ICE agent, your mom’s a HOE’ wasn’t suspended. But a student who posted a piece of paper saying ‘We [heart] ICE ~ Real Americans’ was suspended for ‘so incites pupils as to create a clear and present danger.’”
Reichert was right to urge the district to seek legal counsel. The suspended student had taken that advice himself. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression [FIRE] took up the students’ case and contacted the school district to request documents relating to his suspension. Clearly caught in a web of their own making, the school district quickly announced that the student’s suspension “was being expunged.”
“[T]he problem is that when this student used his First Amendment right to nondisruptively voice his opinion that was contrary to the protesters, they suspended him, and that’s where the First Amendment steps in,” explained FIRE attorney Conor Fitzpatrick. “Airing an opinion that might upset someone isn’t harassment, and it’s not fighting words.”
Coincidentally—or perhaps not—Torrey Pines HS Principal Rob Coppo resigned in the midst of this saga and “requested a reassignment within the San Dieguito Union High School District.” Coppo told The San Diego Tribune that it was “inaccurate” that a student had been suspended “over political views”—a ludicrous statement given the documented facts of the case.
While justice has ultimately been served in this case, it is not without its victims. The formerly suspended student “was worried the suspension would impact his college applications” and felt “relieved and vindicated” at the school’s reversal of the disciplinary action. He added that he hopes the controversy “sends a message to other students to ‘not be afraid to stand up for what they believe in.’”
That is a virtuous ambition, but perhaps a futile one. This case demonstrates the lengths that school bureaucrats will go to enforce their radical worldview on students and silence dissent. Fear is a justified response to such petty tyrants wielding unchecked power.
Photo credit: usicegov at Wikimedia Commons.
