Dozens of schools in Washington State have participated in a protest assembled walking out of school during the day to protest a certain thing. All through January and February, thousands of students have walked out of their schools to protest mainly ICE. 

Arlington High School has also been one of the schools that has had a walkout in protest of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) on February 2nd and it was led by the students of the school. They walked down the Zimmerman Stairs all the way to Downtown Arlington which is around a 2.5 mile walk and it took about 45 minutes. 

Around 200 Students participated in the walkout including Tatum Markley, a freshman, who talks about her political beliefs on social media or talks about it during the day. 

“I went because I’m very politically motivated,” said Markley. 

Others have a different opinion and reasons why they did not attend the walkout including believing the opposite, not being interested, or too much school work to be able to leave. 

 “ I’m very, very careful with the decisions  I make as a teenager and I also just needed to do school, just to be present at all my classes,” said Karsten Nichol (27’). 

So many people have been influenced by the walkouts happening around the U.S making walkouts a common topic to talk about. People have been talking about the purpose of walkouts and what benefits there are or if there are any and why they participated. 

“It brings awareness to what’s happening and how wrong it is…I think they’re just a powerful impact depending on the subject,” said Markley. 

Many people like to share their voice on something they have a strong belief in and why they think it is wrong or not. Another common topic popping up is the question if people under the age of 18 should be interested in politics or hot topics. 

“Walkouts in general, they all have a purpose, but sometimes it just doesn’t make sense to me,” said Nichol.  

There have been a lot of walkouts across the country for many different causes but mostly to abolish ICE.  A lot of people are taking action in their work, school, and other places by staying at home or walking out during the day. 

“Some of them (walkouts)  go a little too far, in my opinion,  especially when it comes to protesting and physical violence” said Nichol.

Arlington High School has participated in one of the many walkouts across Washington. At the end of the day, we will all have different opinions on things but it is how people deal with it that matters. 

“I think they’re impressive. I think that speaking on my experience as someone in Arlington, I think that it’s good that people are going out and talking about it” said Markley.