Students organized a walkout to protest I.C.E (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) on February 11, 2026 at Indian Hills Middle School, with more than 200 students walking out during 6th hour passing period, and lasting the entirety of 6th hour.
Around the country, kids, teens, and adults alike are being separated, and the students of Indian Hills, along with others from the SMSD area, have taken action with school walkouts.
“I am really proud of Indian Hills. So many people showed up, and we can all unite under one cause to help make a difference. ‘The only thing more powerful than hate is love.’ ” – Sasha Paddock
Sasha Paddock, an eighth grader at Indian Hills Middle School, spread the message of the walkout, which originally only had the goal of 100 students, but spread far enough to have more than 200 students deciding to participate in the protest at the far end of the outdoor football field, and risk any retaliation or judgement against them from the administration or their community.
Dr. Kelley Capper had been “informed before the protest, and worked to find a safe place where students could gather.”
While there was a small group of students on the opposite side of the field wearing MAGA hats and trying to make noise and disrupt the larger group, they were ignored, other than by Dr. Capper naming them a separate protest and granting them permission to the opposite side of the field.
The last walkout that occurred in the district before Indian Hills participated, was at Shawnee Mission East High School.
Many students have been hearing about I.C.E and immigration policies for months, some for years, and have built opinions around immigration and whether or not many of their actions are lawful, or illegal and unjustifiable in the long run.
Since the beginning of Donald Trump’s second term, deportations from the U.S of immigrants have more than quadrupled, and the number of overall arrests by Immigration & Customs Enforcement (I.C.E) has also quadrupled, with the largest part being street arrests.
Since the beginning of 2026, ICE has killed multiple U.S citizens in public, including Renee Good, Alex Pretti, and Keith Porter, with their reasons for the killings conflicting with eye-witnesses’ accounts and recordings. These citizens were valuable to their communities, with Alex Pretti being a nurse, and both Renee and Keith parental figures. Multiple people have also died in, or due to, treatment in I.C.E custody, including Luis Beltrán Yáñez–Cruz, Heber Sánchez Domínguez, and others.
There are also multiple victim accounts of abusive conditions and neglect, including both physical and sexual abuse. According to the ACLU, “Geraldo Lunas Campos spent months detained at Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas before he died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody. His death has been ruled a homicide after reports that an officer choked him during an altercation.”
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This was a major operation and took planning, but with the right people, timing, and other things that helped this situation, i’d say this was a complete win.
it was very nice seeing everyone stand up for what they belived in loved it