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Across the country, mass chaos is erupting in classrooms. Students are being encouraged and aided in walking out during school hours to protest American law enforcement.Â
And we’re told these “demonstrations” are organic expressions of “student voice” and civic engagement.
They are not.
Public schools are being used as indoctrination camps to turn children into social justice foot soldiers to carry out a Marxist agenda and cause maximum disruption for President Donald Trump and his administration.
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A girl waves a Mexican flag as fellow students from at least twelve LAUSD high schools walkout in protest of the Trump administration’s nationwide immigration crackdown, and descend on City Hall on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, in Los Angeles, Calif. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
If one thing is clear, it should be: Children do not design national protest strategies, coordinate messaging across states or time walkouts for political effect. Adults do.
To be specific, what is being represented as an organic, grassroots movement is being orchestrated by adults who run the same teacher unions and activist networks that have blurred, and now erased, the lines between education and political warfare.
This distinction matters because when schools across the country become staging grounds for political demonstrations, students aren’t being empowered to speak their mind.
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They’re being used.
Student proficiency scores in reading and math have never been lower, yet the people in charge of education have taken it upon themselves to encourage students to leave the classroom.Â
This is not harmless symbolism; it’s negligence.
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) U.S. high school reading and math scores are at their lowest levels in decades, with only 35% of seniors proficient in reading, and 22% proficient in math. Â
Nearly a third of students can’t even read “basic” level, while 45% fall below basic in math.Â

Students across the U.S. protested immigration enforcement, causing some districts to close for the day in light of deaths of Renee Good and Alex Petti and Renee Good in Minneapolis. Student coalitions held a “National Shutdown” on Jan. 30 and continued to protest through Feb. 3. (Getty Images)
These aren’t abstract numbers. They are the direct result of an education system that has overlooked academics and replaced it with ideology.
But the damage doesn’t stop there.
Chronic absenteeism has become a national crisis, and it did not happen by accident.Â
Before COVID-19, 15% of students were chronically absent.
Public schools are being used as indoctrination camps to turn children into social justice foot soldiers to carry out a Marxist agenda and cause maximum disruption for President Donald Trump and his administration.
Then, teachers unions forced schools to shut down, kept classrooms closed long after evidence said it was safe to reopen, and taught an entire generation of children that school was optional.Â
Today, chronic absenteeism has doubled to around 30%, meaning millions of students now miss a month or more of school every year.Â
The “student” walkouts against ICE follow the exact same playbook unions used during President Donald Trump’s first term with COVID-19 — disrupt, destabilize and weaponize public institutions against our government.
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Promoting walkouts — whether it’s over COVID, ICE, Venezuela or whatever political conflict comes next — sends a message that skipping school is not only acceptable, it is virtuous, as long as your politics are “correct.”
If parents encouraged their child to miss class repeatedly, schools would call it truancy.Â
When unions do it, they call it activism and applaud anyone who dares.
You cannot claim to care about student outcomes while actively pulling students out of classrooms to fight your political battles.
Here is the hard truth unions refuse to admit: Public schools do not belong to unions or political movements. They belong to families and taxpayers.Â
Student proficiency scores in reading and math have never been lower, yet the people in charge of education have taken it upon themselves to encourage students to leave the classroom.Â
Parents trust schools to educate their children, not to recruit them into national political battles or leverage them as pawns against our government.
The reason unions don’t want parents involved in education is because parental involvement would complicate their narrative, and unions know it.
These ICE walkouts are not neutral. They are protests designed to mobilize students against our government. Â
Portraying law enforcement officers as villains to developing minds, while encouraging them to protest during school hours, is at the very least reckless.
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Students protest against ICE during a walkout at the University of Minnesota on Jan. 26, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. Protests and demonstrations continue around Minneapolis in the aftermath of the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good by federal law enforcement. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
And as parents — as American citizens — we need to recognize these walkouts are not isolated incidents. They are a part of a bigger plan to politicize classrooms, coordinate protests and turn our children against our country and president.
The goal has never been better education. It has always been maximum disruption. And we are just now seeing it play out.Â
Students have become the most effective tool in their strategy because criticism is immediately framed as “anti-student” or “anti-democracy.”
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That rhetorical shield is intentional; they took it right out of Karl Marx’s playbook.
If unions truly believed in authentic student voices, they wouldn’t script it.
If they respected parents, they’d ask permission.
And if they cared about education, they wouldn’t keep a system in place that only benefits them.
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Students need more time in classrooms, not less. They need teachers focused on reading, writing, math and science, not organizing protests. They need schools that prioritize learning over headlines.
If these protests teach us one thing, it is that our children deserve better.
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And that is something that will never be able to happen with our schools under union control.
The only way to stop the destruction we are seeing on the news is to defund the people who are inciting it.Â
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