Jade S., a freshman at Shawnee Mission North, felt called to “lead change” after hundreds of her fellow students walked out to protest the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency in February.

On Friday afternoon, Jade saw that calling to fruition when she, alongside at least one other student organizer, led roughly 75 students out of class to protest not only ICE but also new Kansas state laws aimed at restricting school protests and transgender rights.

“I just really hope that I can make a difference,” Jade, who only would give the first initial of her last name, told the Post in an interview at Broadmoor Park in Mission, one of two gathering spots for students who participated in the walkout. “I feel like students, especially students of color and queer students, our voices are significantly underrepresented in America.”

The demonstration at SM North appeared to be the first student walkout in Johnson County since the GOP-led Kansas Legislature passed a measure that puts new restrictions on student protests during the school day. Among other provisions, the law requires parental permission and threatens school districts with fines up to $100,000 a day if they are deemed to be complicit or encouraging of student protests.

As far as students complying with the new restrictions on Friday, Jade said “a lot of us got parental permission.”

The recent restrictions on student walkouts, coupled with lingering opposition to ICE and anger over another state law requiring transgender people to use bathrooms associated with the gender assigned at birth, sparked the SM North walkout on Friday, organizers said.

For the latest walkout, Jade and a handful of other students guided the crowd, about a fourth of the size or smaller compared to February’s walkout, off campus and east down Johnson Drive, then north up Broadmoor Street until they reached the park.

The crowd of students chanted slogans like, “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA,” and, “What do we want? ICE out. When do we want it? Now,” as they marched along Johnson Drive, and again at the park.

There were no organized student counterprotesters on Friday, unlike at some previous student walkouts in Johnson County earlier this year, including one at Olathe Northwest that ended with a fight between some students.

One participating student Friday told others in the crowd that a person in a car driving by had flipped students off.

“The only thing you can do is use your voice”

At the park on Friday afternoon, a few students, like senior Wren Hilburn, rallied the crowd with speeches.

Hilburn told the Post he is alarmed by the Trump administration’s actions and, in particular, state-level efforts that restrict transgender rights.

For Hilburn, Friday’s protest was one way to satisfy what he called his growing “need to fight against this force that’s eating away at the people.”

“With everything going on in the world right now, the only thing you can do is use your voice,” Hilburn said. “They are taking away the means of using your voice from everywhere in the world.”

As far as efforts to “silence” students with bills from the statehouse, Hilburn said he sees no end to protests so long as legislation tries to dictate how people live.

Catalina Norris, a sophomore at SM North, said she learned about the protest in the halls on Friday afternoon and joined because she supports transgender rights.

Norris said she and her fellow SM North students have a right to show up and fight for their beliefs.

While Friday’s protest brought out a smaller crowd compared to February’s walkout, Norris said she was still proud to see students show up.

“It is so important that we keep trying to fight and keep trying to gather and push back against the awful things they’ve been doing,” Norris said.

How the bill restricts student walkouts

The measure limiting student protests was incorporated into HB 2513, a larger budget bill, and includes restrictions on student walkouts held during the school day.

Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed the student protest line item, but Republican supermajorities in both the Kansas Senate and the House overrode that veto in mid-April.

The restrictions require students to first get parental permission to participate in a walkout that takes place during the school day. Students must also make up an instructional day if they walk out of school for a protest.

For Shea Geist, a parent of a SM North junior who supported students at Friday’s protest, the restriction on student walkouts represents fear and is an attempt to prevent something “that should be promoted.”

“It is trying to keep this generation from understanding their rights and how they can impact what happens in their state, or in their community, their school district,” Geist said.

Geist said her child did not attend Friday’s protest, but she supported the students who did.

School districts that either encourage student walkouts or fail to enforce the restrictions can be fined up to $100,000 a day, according to the new law. Any money collected could then go into the state’s general fund.

The Kansas Reflector reported that proponents of the bill argued that they support the First Amendment but that students need to express their opinions outside of the school day.

Kansas Sen. Beverly Gossage, a Republican representing Eudora as well as an area of western Johnson County, said last month during a discussion about the issue that students should use their free speech rights “outside the school day.”

“This is not a matter of free speech. You have your right to speech, your right to assemble — not during the school day,” Gossage said on March 3. “School gets out really early. You have plenty of time to do something like this after school no matter what it is they are protesting.”

A look at the district’s policy

Kristin Babcock, a communications coordinator with the Shawnee Mission School District, told the Post in a Friday email that the district is currently operating under its existing policy, JCEC, outlining students’ “constitutional right to peaceably assemble.”

That activity, though, must be done in a way that is not disruptive to classes or school activities, Babcock said.

“We adhere to attendance and truancy policies as appropriate,” Babcock said. “Our priority through it all is to keep kids safe.”

Administrators are also unable to “redirect or shape the contents of students’ speeches out of a desire to avoid controversy” for student-organized demonstrations that happen on school property, according to district policy, Babcock said.

Babcock added that “in light of the proviso,” meaning the new student protest measure, the Shawnee Mission district plans to review its current policy and consider potential changes to it, as well as seek guidance on the issue from the Kansas Association of School Boards.

Keep reading community issues news: As the World Cup comes to KC, JoCo advocates fear it could bring more ICE activity, too