Students walk out of school for anti-ICE protest in Warner Robins

Students said they were warned of suspension if they ditched school without permission for a protest Friday in Warner Robins against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

A handful of kids, including 17-year-old Jose Pena, walked out of class anyway during school hours at Northside High School.

Pena said he wanted to show the public “what is right,” and held a sign that said, “We are skipping our lessons to teach you one!”

An ideal world to him meant “everybody has freedom, everybody’s equal because a human is a human, and no difference between me, him, you, we’re all human,” Pena said.

But the young protesters said that’s not the current reality in many areas across the country.

‘Terrible things happening’

Federal immigration officers have violently arrested U.S. citizens, raided homes and schools, rammed vehicles, and killed dozens of people nationwide since President Donald Trump took office in January 2025, according to several news outlets and social media.

An internal ICE document said its officers are authorized to arrest people without a judge’s warrant, the Associated Press reported Wednesday. A five-year-old and his dad were detained Tuesday in what opponents described as “hunting,” CNN reported.

A dozen students, a few parents and local Democratic advocates marched a mile through the cold rain, chanting, “Melt the ice,” and, “We want justice, we want peace.” They trekked the sidewalk along Green Street to Walmart Neighborhood Market on North Houston Road and back from around 1 to 4 p.m.

Samantha Thurman, an 11th-grader who organized the walkout through social media and word of mouth, asked fellow protesters if they felt unsafe expressing political views under Trump.

Some raised their hands and others yelled in solidarity.

“People don’t want to stand up because they’re scared of punishments … because everything you see in the news today is just about Trump, about all these terrible things happening,” Thurman shouted.

Thurman and a few others said they were permitted to leave school early if a guardian checked them out, but teachers told them anyone without permission would face in-school suspension.

“They said they have everything on camera, so everybody’s faces, everybody’s gonna have (in-school suspension) that protests,” Pena said.

Tara Faiella, a mother of one of the teenagers, joined them for safety and support, and brought granola bars to sustain them. The Middle Georgia native acknowledged her family’s privilege and ability to speak out for others who’ve been racially profiled and arrested by ICE. Faiella described herself as a white, heterosexual, cisgender person, meaning her gender aligns with the sex she was assigned at birth.

“My greatest teachers in my life have been Black women,” Faiella said. “I don’t have any idea what it’s like to be in a body that’s different from mine, but I do know … if I can teach my kids to use their privilege to stand up for others, then I’ve done a good job.”

She loudly encouraged young people to protect one another, regardless of their race.

“I’ve lived in privilege my entire life, nobody follows me in a store, nobody looks at me different,” Faiella said. “Why have privilege if I can’t use it for people that don’t have that privilege?”

Spectators

The crowd caught the attention of locals who watched from the doorways of convenience stores and porches around the Title I high school. Some drivers honked, and one yelled slurs at the protesters.

Jo Ann Rodriguez, a Warner Robins resident and manager of The Laundry Basket laundromat at 513 N. Houston Road, watched the youthful crowd march past her business.

If ICE increased its presence in Warner Robins, Rodriguez, a Texas native of Mexican descent, said she’d try to protect people from being targeted.

“I would hide them in there. I really would,” Rodriguez said. “I’d tell (officers), ‘You can’t go in, I’m the manager.’”

Jerry Brown, a 64-year-old man who recently moved to Warner Robins from Liberty City, a historically Black community in Miami that faces high poverty, smoked a cigarette outside his brick house while kids chanted across the street.

“I think it’s good,” Brown said of the demonstration. “In my younger days we didn’t have this kind of problem. … You got ICE shooting people and all that, roughing people up, they’re doing a lot of unnecessary stuff that doesn’t make no sense.”

‘Regular school day,’ principal says

Principal Dustin Dykes walked outside the school’s front office minutes before students started walking out around 1 p.m.

“We’re having a regular school day at Northside High School,” he told The Telegraph.

He declined further comment, but told a parent that students could leave with a parent’s permission, but if not, they’re “not my responsibility.”

Spokespeople for Houston County School District did not immediately respond to The Telegraph’s request for comment.

Police nearby

Patrol vehicles with the Houston County Sheriff’s Office and Warner Robins Police Department followed the students and looped around nearby streets to ensure the protesters and community stayed safe, according to Lt. Chad Weldon.

“I heard it was gonna happen, I (came) over just to kind of get my guys and be here to make sure everything goes good, that’s why we’re here,” Weldon said while standing in front of Northside High.

Weldon said he supervises the school regularly, but more officers than usual were in the area because of the protest.

This story was originally published January 23, 2026 at 8:20 PM.