‘They took away our voices’: Administrators quash planned Plain City student walkout

Organizers at Jonathan Alder High School (JAHS) in Plain City planned a protest walkout for last week, intending to lend their voices to a growing movement of students across the United States who have spoken up in opposition to the actions being undertaken by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). But when the students left their classrooms near the end of the school day, they found teachers and administrators blocking the exits, which were patrolled from the outside by police.

In a series of posts made to Instagram Stories via an account created to help organize the walkout, one student offered their perspective of events, presented in a series of slides that included photographs of school officials stationed in front of exit doors, screenshots of which have been preserved by Matter News.

“For everyone unaware of what actually went down at JAHS today, here’s the truth. They took away our constitutional right, threatening suspension and EXPULSION if we walked out of our school today,” the student wrote of the suppressed protest, which was scheduled to take place during final period on Friday, Feb. 20. “Teachers and administrators, people we should look up to, blocked every exit out of our school with their bodies, permitting none of us to leave. Four police cars with officers were stationed around our building. … They took away our voices and threatened to take our education away if we left those doors. They say we are too young to understand the world, but we’re the ones living in it.” (Administrators of the Instagram account did not respond to a message sent by Matter News requesting an interview.)

At the time of the planned walkout, district resident Alecia Martin joined in a nine-car caravan organized by adult supporters of the students and made up of parents, grandparents, and sympathetic residents. After meeting in a nearby parking lot, the assembled cars traveled toward the high school, intending to honk and cheer as they drove past the gathered students shortly after 2 p.m.

“And when we passed the high school, there were cops everywhere … but no kids,” said Martin, who described how the group then did a loop, returning to the school roughly 10 minutes later. “And there were still no kids.”

The group then pulled into a nearby parking lot, where Martin sent a text message to one of the student protestors, who informed her the students who attempted the walkout were met at the doors by administrators. “And they essentially stopped them by putting adults between these kids and the outside,” said Martin, who added that JAHS students intend to organize another protest attempt in the near future.

In a statement sent late last week to district families, a copy of which was proved to Matter News, the Jonathan Alder Board of Education wrote that while it recognizes and respects the constitutional right of students to express their views and assemble peaceably, “those rights must be exercised in a manner that does not disrupt the operation of the schools or infringe upon the rights of others to learn.”

“Student walk-outs that occur during school hours and on school property constitute a disruption to the education program,” the letter continues. “Such actions interfere with instruction, compromise student supervision and safety, and detract from the orderly functioning of our schools. For these reasons, walk-outs during the school day are not permitted and will result in appropriate disciplinary consequences consistent with Board policy, up to and including suspension or expulsion.”

During a phone call last week between a district parent and Jonathan Alder Board Member Sonia Walker, a copy of which was provided to Matter News (Ohio is a one-party recording consent state), the two discussed a series of student walkouts that took place without issue at the high school in 2018. And while Walker acknowledged in the call that the policy related to walkouts had then gone unenforced, she argued the circumstances were substantially different. “It didn’t happen when this Board was in place, and it didn’t happen under this administration, and it didn’t happen when the climate is the way it is in the world,” Walker said, later adding, “I promise you this policy will be enforced regardless of the reason for the protest from here forward.”

Explaining the Board’s decision in the recorded call, Walker cited the potential that students could be physically harmed or even killed if allowed to exit the building, proposing a scenario in which “some psycho lays down in the field across the street with a shotgun and kills one of our students.” Walker also theorized absent evidence that the Instagram account utilized by organizers could have been created by “a third-party, nefarious organization that is literally trying to put students in harm’s way.” 

“When you are entrusted with the care of children, you must always consider and protect against the worst case scenario,” Walker wrote via email in response to a request for comment from Matter News. “We simply cannot protect students who walk out of our buildings and stand on our front lawn as well as if they remain in the classroom.”

Jen Dew, a parent in the district who first learned of the planned protest from the School Board’s letter, said she was disappointed by the response to the students by administration officials and also the local community, pointing to the Plain City Ohio Community Forum, a private Facebook group in which a viral post related to the planned walkout quickly filled with what she termed “hateful” comments directed at the students.

“And to see that community response, it was disappointing, especially because these are young kids who are just learning what they want to believe in. And that being suppressed feels inappropriate to me,” said Dew, who moved to Plain City from Dublin in 2010, looking for a smaller, more rural community similar to the town of Ostrander where she was raised. “And I wonder if they would have responded the same if this wasn’t a political issue that [has been championed] by people on the left. If it had been a Charlie Kirk memorial, would they have responded the same way?”

In the phone call recorded between Walker and the district parent, the two discussed similar concerns, including the potential impact the political leanings of certain Board members could have had on the decision, and in particular Bruce Hooley, a right-wing radio talk show host who has previously made derisive social media posts about federal judges whose rulings have challenged the deportation actions being undertaken by the Trump administration. “He is one of five voices, and none of us … have a stronger voice than the others,” Walker said of Hooley. “I know you’re saying the political beliefs of certain Board members frames your perception [of this decision] … and that’s totally a valid point, which, honestly, I will take under consideration and discuss with the Board as we proceed forward. But this ship has sailed.”

Both Dew and Martin described Plain City as a heavily conservative community where an influx of new residents has introduced tension. “There’s a lot of this strain, like, ‘You moved into town and you’re ruining it,’” said Martin, who grew up across the county line in Hilliard but has deep Plain City roots, her grandmother having attended school in the district and her great-grandmother having worked in the system as a teacher.

Dew, meanwhile, described an evolving rural area in which farms have increasingly been sold and transformed into housing developments, introducing new community members who are frequently viewed with a jaundiced eye by longtime residents. “It’s like everything is changing, and they’re not seeing this change as a good thing,” said Dew, who viewed the suppressed walkout as one in a number of developing fracture points. “And that has been surprising to me, because we’ve been super impressed with the school, and we’ve felt nothing but love from the teachers. And so, this response from the Board caught me off guard, because it doesn’t reflect what I’ve seen and experienced the last four years of my kids being in the district.”