Defending Education’s online protest tracker, which went up this month, notes connections to the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
In Oakland, California, students in 11 different schools skipped class to protest recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests. A video later posted on social media linked to those events shows an angry middle school student reading a script and shouting into a microphone as her peers cheer and an adult in the background adjusts an amplifier.
“Trump, you are nuts,” the girl reads. “We will not stop at ICE. We will come after this whole system of fascism, injustice, and discrimination.”
On the same day, Jan. 30, similar walkouts took place in five separate Rhode Island districts, including at three different high schools in Providence alone. There were also five in Austin, Texas, two in North Carolina, and one in Portland, Oregon, according to the Defending Education nonprofit parental rights organization.
Rhyen Staley, the organization’s research director, has so far tracked more than 40 anti-ICE high school and middle school walkouts across several states this year, in which students were seen holding signs he says were provided by the Party for Socialism and Liberation. His ongoing investigation is largely based on an analysis of news outlets, social media, and press releases. The findings so far are available on Defending Education’s online Student Walkout and Protest Tracker.
He believes that the organization connects with students via social media and offers signs, typically black with white letters, to those planning protests. In some cases, he added, the schools have social activism clubs.
All told, Staley counted 329 protests and walkouts in schools this year so far, compared to 51 total last year and 21 in 2022. Most are regarding ICE, but many took place in support of Palestine, LGBTQ ideology, DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), or environmental causes. Other organizations connected to the walkouts include the Sunrise Movement, the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, and By Any Means Necessary.
“There’s an activist pipeline in public schools,” he told The Epoch Times. “Nothing is more disruptive to learning than kids leaving the classroom.”
The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) is a self-proclaimed Marxist organization that proclaims on its website, “For the planet to live, capitalism must end.” It advocates socialism as the main step toward an eventual communist system.
“The aim of the PSL is to abolish the corrupt, rotten, and anti-people capitalist economy, state, and governmental system, and replace it with one dedicated to meeting the needs of the people—a socialist system,” the website says.
The Epoch Times reached out to the Party for Socialism and Liberation for comment, but did not receive a reply before publication.
