At Thompson High School in Alabaster City Schools (Birmingham, Alabama), students walked out on February 9 to protest ICE operations, part of a nationwide wave of demonstrations against the agency.
With a contrary motive, according to 1819 News, other students on campus chose to pray before the school day, ahead of the walkouts. Among these students were several students in the process of finalizing a Turning Point USA Club America chapter on campus.
Alabaster School System superintendent Dr. Wayne Vickers fully backed the students who prayed, emphasizing their first amendment rights in his support for them.
“We’re a firm believer in a student or employee’s right to religious expression,” he affirmed in a statement to 1819 News. “I am adamant about that, and so is our school system, our principal, and everyone involved. We are true believers in giving that opportunity.”
Maddie Lawrence, The TPUSA Club America Dixie Territory Field Representative, joined the students.
“We prayed outside with the chapter and had a good conversation with the principal afterwards,” Lawrence wrote to 1819 News. “He said we are good to go as long as we find a teacher sponsor, which we found one that afternoon.”
Last Thursday, the White House commented on the trend of student prayer amid walkout anti-ICE walkout demonstrations.
“The Trump Administration is proud to stand with students, parents, and faculty who wish to exercise their First Amendment rights in schools across our great nation,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said. “Our Constitution safeguards the free exercise of religion as one of the guiding principles of our republic, and we will vigorously protect that right in America’s public schools.”
Similarly, in Redding, California, TPUSA chapters at Simpson University and Shasta College held a night of prayer on February 7, which coincided with an ICE protest conducted by other students in the region.
