“This is my daughter’s middle school. I’m pulling my child today… being allowed to protest ICE agents, disrupting traffic… This is f*cking unbelievable.”
An Auburn, Washington mother recorded herself removing her seventh-grade child from Olympic Middle School on Friday after learning that students had walked out during the school day to protest federal immigration enforcement. In the video, she described the walkout disrupting traffic, interfering with learning, and creating an environment she did not believe was safe for her child or for parents approaching the campus.
“Is this serious? I’m pulling my child today,” Erika Franklin says at the start of the clip. “This is my daughter’s middle school. I'm pulling my child today...being allowed to protest ICE agents, disrupting traffic… This is f*cking unbelievable.”
https://twitter.com/thehoffather/status/2017790736171995595?s=20
She walks through the protest in front of the school, which disrupted traffic, into the main office and told staff, “I’m here to pull my child from the school right now.” At the time, the staff wasn’t even sure where her daughter was and said they had to find her.
The middle schoolers left class and spilled into the surrounding streets in the middle of the school day. “This is disrupting traffic and my child’s education,” she tells staff. “I cannot believe that my child is in this environment right now. I’m blown away.” She also said she was targeted as she arrived, with students booing her. “As I walked up, I was getting booed by every single student,” she says. “I didn’t honk. I pulled up to make sure everyone was okay… absolutely not.”
When her daughter was found and brought to the office, Franklin asked to be escorted to her car through the protest. “I want to be escorted… because every single student booed me,” she said, later adding, “I wasn’t safe walking to the front door… I wasn’t safe driving up.”
“I’m ashamed, and I’m embarrassed as a parent and as an adult,” she says. “I’m telling you right now, this is gonna be a huge problem.”
After the walkout, the Olympic Middle School principal issued a statement claiming that the event was not approved by the school or district. “The walkout that occurred was not school-sanctioned, organized, or encouraged by our school or district. This was a student-led event that circulated through social media, and as soon as we were made aware of it, we immediately took action to ensure student safety. Students who chose to participate were marked absent; those absences were recorded as unexcused, and any students who left campus were marked truant in accordance with district attendance procedures. Students remain fully responsible for any missed instruction, classwork, or assessments as a result of their decision.”
But the staff in Franklin’s video appeared to be supportive of the protest.
Auburn’s Democratic mayor, Nancy Backus, praised the students walking out of class and hindering traffic as an example of peaceful civic engagement, writing in a statement, “Friday afternoon, hundreds of Auburn students gathered peacefully outside City Hall to share their voices and stand up for issues that matter deeply to them… Many students took time to speak with City staff, ask questions about how government works, and learn more about civic engagement. That kind of curiosity and involvement is something I truly admire!”
She added that Auburn is “a welcoming community,” and praised the protest as “peaceful civic engagement.” A GoFundMe has been set up to send Erika's daughter to private school.
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