‘They protested the wrong people’: Out-of-control Kansas high school protest highlights risks in growing student ICE walkouts

An anti-ICE walkout in Kansas City Friday that turned violent and criminal only sheds light on rising student walkouts against immigration enforcement.

The protest at Olathe Northwest High School escalated to a violent frenzy when a student anti-ICE mob chased and assaulted two of their classmates who stood across the street from the school holding Trump flags.

Viral videos of the incident show a group of over 10 students walking across the street to approach the two holding Trump flags. The protesters yanked the flags from their hands, pulled the boys to the ground and beat them with the flag poles.

“As you’ll see in these shocking videos, these kids literally walked across the street, violently attacked my son and his friend,” Bogdan Zaslavsky, the father of one of the victims, wrote in a Facebook post.

Once they regained their footing, the two boys ran off, trying to escape the mob.

“They kept chasing even after my son defended himself and even resorted to running, they kept chasing,” Zaslavsky continued. “I’m VERY PROUD of my son and his friend for standing up for their beliefs and defending themselves.”

The father also noted when the two boys got back to the friend’s car after being chased they found the Jeep “vandalized, keyed, and dented up all over.”

One male student was taken into custody and other perpetrators are still being identified, the Olathe Police Department says.

Online revulsion toward the student mob has been fierce and national.

“This kind of violence ladies and gentlemen, has no place. Has no place in our schools or in society. Completely unacceptable,” podcaster Doug Billings of Olathe said in a video on X.

The walkout was one of many protests that have occurred in the district and elsewhere in Kansas City within the past month. Olathe schools have denied faculty involvement in the walkouts, though Olathe Northwest Principal Chris Zuck sent an email informing parents of the walkout a day before it happened. Despite the violence that occurred last week, another protest at Olathe Northwest is planned for Wednesday, Zuck said.

The anti-ICE movement has adopted the slogan “the only thing more powerful than hate is love,” often seen on protester signs. The saying gained popularity after Bad Bunny’s halftime performance at the Superbowl.

However, the once “peaceful protests” against ICE are seeing an increase in violence. Students assaulted police officers while conducting a walkout during school in Pennsylvania, and students in Texas kicked a truck during a walkout, resulting in the adult driver retaliating.

“Student walkouts during instructional time should never be permitted by the faculty. They disrupt learning that taxpayers are paying for,” Billings said. “They are there to learn. Free speech has its proper time and its proper place: after the school day is over.”

“We’re skipping our lessons to teach you one,” one student-held sign said.

“Now, after the protest, teachers should have them write a 4 page essay explaining why they protested and what it means to them and their country,” someone commented on KMBC 9’s post. “THAT would make it an educational project.”

A video on X shows Shawnee Mission East students in Kansas City explaining why they’re protesting ICE, but their statements suggest they might not understand ICE’s purpose after all.

“No one should be taken from their home just because of who they are,” one student says.

“I come from a latina immigrant (sic) and I’ve studied history too much to let this go and not do anything about it,” a high-school sophomore explains.

“I’ll be damned if another person in my family has to tell a refugee story,” another says.

“My best friend could get taken by ICE even though she’s an American citizen,” a fourth claims.

“My grandparents on my dad’s side are immigrants and I believe that no human is illegal, and this is nothing short of terrorism,” says another.

The post exhibiting the video from SM East gives a powerful juxtaposition with a photo of illegal alien Mario Torrez-Lopez beside the video of the students. Torrez-Lopez, a repeat criminal who the post says “drugged, r*ped, and trafficked kids the same age as these students” and returned to the U.S. after deportation four times, was arrested by ICE just miles away from the school, according to the X user.

“They protested the wrong people,” another X post argues regarding the Shawnee Mission students. “ICE saved lives that day. Someone should tell them that.”

Another criminal illegal alien convicted of second-degree statutory rape was arrested just last week in Boone County, Missouri.

“It’s almost funny, yet tragic, to see how young people, who think they’re so smart, be so stupid,” one X commenter says. “It never even crosses their minds that their ‘teachers’ and professors may have an agenda and have been lying to them.”

The Department of Homeland Security promises to deliver a secure border and a safer community through the removal of “dangerous criminal illegal aliens.” Children, presumably including the ones protesting ICE, are directly impacted and safeguarded by ICE.

“I think it is detestable that in essence these Anti-ICE efforts in turn support human trafficking sexual [exploitation] of children,” one observer posted on X, linking to a post that refers to Border Czar Tom Homan.

“Despite what the media says, we’re not heartless, we care about these kids,” Homan says. “I am a father and the reason I’m so emotional and so headstrong on this issue is because I’ve dealt with dying children throughout my career. I’ve held dying children. I’ve held dead children. I’ve talked to little girls as young as 9 that were raped multiple times by the criminal cartels.

“I’ll never forget it. When you get on your knees to talk to a 9-year-old little girl, everything innocent & pure was ripped from her … You never forget it.

“That shit’s happening every day. We are going to put an end to it.”