At J.R. Tucker High, more than 700 students staged a walkout against the recent actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Jan. 23. Other Henrico high schools followed suit, with a Feb. 13 protest at Glen Allen High bringing out nearly 1,000 students.
And today (Feb. 20), students were planning massive walkouts at all nine high schools in the county, though it was unclear initially how many had occurred. The countywide protest was planned on social media by a student-led Instagram account, “iceouthenrico,” and news about the protest spread among students online and through word of mouth. The Feb. 20 protest at Tucker appeared much smaller than the previous one at the school, and students at Glen Allen reported similar observations there.
Glen Allen senior Joshua Raspberry, who organized the initial protest at his school, said that like many other students at the school, he has become more interested in political issues as he has gotten older. Raspberry recently turned 18, and the culmination of his new ability to vote and recent violence involving ICE agents in Minneapolis became a turning point for his involvement in politics…