Many Nevada students have walked out of class in response to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations. Will they face any consequences for doing so?

American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada Executive Director Athar Haseebullah said generally, students’ First Amendment rights are protected. However, one of the most prominent examples of case law that upholds students’ freedom of speech, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, deals with activity within school grounds. Walkouts, which occur off campus, are in a sort of gray area.

But Haseebullah argues that doesn’t give school administrators a free pass to discipline those students differently than they would students who are tardy or absent for other reasons.

“If they end up treating it differently, and that, I think, is grounds for litigation,” Haseebullah said.

During one of these walkouts in Reno last month, Debbie Smith CTE Academy students explained why they were speaking out against Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) actions in Minnesota that resulted in two fatal shootings.

“I think a lot of people in our country are not getting their constitutional rights of due process, and I think that’s wrong,” senior Atticus Mahr told The Indy as he was walking with an American flag draped across his shoulders.

Another senior, Briana Mondragon, said she wanted to advocate for people who can’t speak out.

“I feel like people should always have freedom of speech,” she said.

These anti-ICE walkouts are the latest example of American student activism. Other prominent examples include sit-ins organized by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee formed by Black college students during the 1960 Civil Rights Movement and the March for Our Lives protests advocating for gun control legislation following the Parkland, Florida, high school shooting in 2018.

The Clark County School District (CCSD) and Washoe County School District (WCSD) both said in statements last month that students who participated in the walkouts would be marked tardy or absent, in accordance with Nevada law, depending on how long they are out of class. The absences could be considered unexcused.

CCSD didn’t respond to The Nevada Independent’s inquiry about how many schools and students participated in a walkout and whether the district had disciplined any of the student protesters.

WCSD, which has an enrollment of about 60,000, said more than 13,000 students who were scheduled to attend a class at 11 a.m. or later had an unverified absence on Jan. 30, a day when organizers nationwide called for protests against ICE. The district notes that an unverified absence does not necessarily indicate participation in a walkout and could be due to an unrelated circumstance, such as an illness.

The districtwide absence rate for that day, 23 percent, was higher than two typical Fridays earlier in this school year, between 6 percent to 7 percent. The absence rate among high school students for Jan. 30 was 46 percent compared with the typical rate of 14 percent to 16 percent, and 33 percent for middle school students compared with the typical rate of 3 percent to 4 percent.

WCSD didn’t specify what schools the absent students were from. District officials said in a Friday statement there are no reports of students disciplined for engaging in a walkout.

The ACLU of Nevada has a form on its website where students can report whether they’ve been disciplined for engaging in First Amendment activity.

Nevada Independent photographer Nick Stewart contributed reporting.

---

News briefs

✂️ Budget cuts coming to Clark County schools — Clark County schools are considering budget cuts, including staff reductions, as the district anticipates it will receive $50 million less in funding next school year compared with the current term. 

The primary culprit is an enrollment decline of more than 5,000 students. But higher employee costs after the district raised staff pay in 2023 are also stretching schools’ budgets. 

The district said in a recent fact sheet that 284 out of its 374 schools saw a reduction in their overall budgets compared to last school year. The majority of those schools experienced drops in their student enrollment. 

Some schools, such as Walter Johnson Junior High School, are also anticipating receiving less funding after losing their Title I status. That designation, given to schools that serve a large population of low-income households, allows them to receive extra federal funding. 

The district explained that the proposed budget cuts won’t take effect until next year, meaning existing staff will stay in their positions for the remainder of this term. The district said it instituted a temporary hiring freeze on outside applicants to help ensure that there are openings available for current employees whose positions are expected to be cut next school year. 

🏫 Douglas County School District to consolidate elementary schools — The Douglas County School Board voted last Wednesday to move toward consolidating two Gardnerville elementary schools as the district is facing a $5 million budget deficit. The district will now notify families of students attending C.C. Meneley and Scarselli elementary schools of its plans to consolidate the schools pending a final vote in March. Some staff positions would be eliminated in the process. 

If the plan is approved, C.C. Meneley students and the remaining staff would move to Scarselli.

In addition, the board voted to appoint an appraiser, Ben Johnson of Johnson Appraisals, to determine the value of district-owned property. The district also approved starting the process of selling district-owned property, such as buildings or school buses, to reduce costs.

The district has also begun to advertise for its chief financial officer position. Douglas County School District Superintendent Frankie Alvarado said in a Jan. 13 interview the position was eliminated during a budget cut almost a decade ago. 

---

Reading assignments

Nevada school budget heyday was short-lived. Why several districts are now in dire straits

Superintendents across the state say flat K-12 education funding, increased costs that have chipped away at their reserves, declining student enrollment and policy changes under the state’s new funding formula have created a perfect storm for their budgets.

‘One of the most difficult decisions’: Nevada’s higher ed leaders lament tuition increase

Students expressed dismay at the vote, arguing that the state’s colleges and universities were already too expensive for some families.

Extra credit

Las Vegas Review-Journal: New CCSD start times to help high schoolers most, middle schoolers least, experts say

---

Featured social media post

Congrats from a CCSD magnet school grad!