A few weeks ago, posts about high school students organizing protests due to the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement began circulating on social media.  

In most cases, it was students organizing with their peers to walk out of school in protest of the actions and presence of ICE agents in American cities.   

They usually assemble around an area near the school and produce quippy chants, much like their adult counterparts who took to the streets of America to voice concerns over the agency’s operations and the killings of Alex Pretti and Renée Goode in Minnesota. 

While checking the comments on posts of student protests, there tend to be two sets of people: The crowd that gives students their full support, and the crowd that criticizes the students for leaving school.   

The ladder of the two typically accuses the students of cutting class and says they should not be doing it during school hours.  

But, whether that group is for or against ICE’s operations in America’s cities, these student-led walkouts should not be seen as cutting class but rather an opportunity to educate children about the First Amendment and give them a live, real world example of how to execute their right to assemble. 

Allowing students to go through the process of rallying their peers to demonstrate what they believe in is a great learning experience.   

The burden remains on the future generation to hold elected officials accountable, and accountability from the government is just as important now as it has ever been.   

There’s no better time for people to learn how to protest and be a functioning member of society than in high school, where teenagers are continuing to develop as they get older.   

It’s our responsibility as adults to educate the youth about their rights. According to the Annenberg Civics Knowledge Survey conducted by the University of Pennsylvania, over half of the respondents did not know all the specific rights granted by the First Amendment.   

That is the result of a failure by America’s schools to properly teach kids about all the rights included, not just in the First Amendment, but in the entire Bill of Rights and the Constitution.   

It’s on our generation of educators, parents and caretakers to teach our children about their rights as U.S. citizens. The sooner kids learn, the better chance they have of keeping that knowledge handy as they grow up, which allows them to be educated citizens by the time they’re old enough to vote and be functioning members of society.   

School provides a constructive marketplace of ideas that gives kids the chance to converse with their peers and figure out truly what issues they believe in and that they feel strongly about.  

This happens in the hallways, at the lunch table and really just about anywhere on school grounds.   

Allowing students to organize protests gives them a chance to learn how to rally a group of people to stand up for what they believe in. Actually participating in the protest is a great experience for students to learn how peaceful assembly works.   

These are valuable lessons that students need to know as they grow up, whether they become union workers picketing for fair wages and working conditions, advocating policy change in the office or holding our leaders accountable for their actions.   

Instead of teasing and mocking students and claiming that they are skipping school, let our future wave of voters and society members get a hands-on experience of how the First Amendment works.  

Kids are still learning even if they’re not in the classroom. It’s only good for our future as a country.   

Gabe Newman can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].