Students across America skipped class in recent weeks to protest how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is enforcing federal immigration laws.
INBOX: Video of students from Dwight D. Eisenhower High School in IL (@DDEcardinals) marching and screaming during an anti-ICE walkout.
Only 8% of students at this school are proficient in Math, while only 12% are proficient in Reading. pic.twitter.com/5uIRco9zIe
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 18, 2026
But the walkouts did more than make headlines.
They exposed a glaring double standard – one that hits particularly hard here in Nevada, a state that can least afford to lose a single minute of classroom time.
Organized Chaos, Not Spontaneous Protest
Let’s be clear about what these walkouts actually were.
They were not spontaneous outpourings of student civic spirit. They were coordinated political campaigns that deliberately targeted school hours.
Organizers published detailed step-by-step guides coaching students on how to recruit classmates, make signs, manage social media, and contact sympathetic teachers.
One guide brazenly told students: “If your administration refuses to sanction the walkout, don’t let that stop you.”
Another urged participants to recruit “the largest number of students and teachers possible.”
Teachers. Not just students – teachers.
The nation’s largest teachers union, the National Education Association, jumped in headfirst, flooding members with anti-ICE messaging, form letters for contacting Congress, and fundraising appeals.
The NEA made clear which side it was on – and it wasn’t the side of the parents who send their kids to school to learn.
The results were predictable.
In one Nebraska school, a student was struck by an SUV during a school-sponsored walkout. In Texas, school districts sent out official school email accounts soliciting students to join anti-ICE marches.
Governors Greg Abbott in Texas and Ron DeSantis in Florida moved quickly to hold teachers accountable, with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launching investigations into multiple school districts for “facilitating and failing to keep students safe.”
Abbott put it plainly: parents send kids to school to be educated, not to attend political protest field trips designed to vilify law enforcement.
The Wrong Priorities in the Wrong State
If there is any state in America that cannot afford to sacrifice classroom time on political theater, it’s Nevada.
Nevada ranks tied for 49th in the nation for public school quality.
Only 30% of Nevada students are proficient in math. Just 44% meet reading standards. In Clark County – the state’s largest district – math proficiency sits at a dismal 21%.
These are not just bad statistics. They represent a generation of Nevada children who will struggle to compete for jobs, build financial stability, and contribute to a stronger Nevada economy.
Against that backdrop, Nevada State Senator Fabian Doñate – who serves on the Senate Health and Human Services Committee and represents a heavily Democratic Las Vegas district – chose to focus on the political climate around immigration enforcement rather than Nevada’s educational emergency.
Doñate stirred controversy by publicly tying walkouts and business closures to what he called a “climate of fear” around federal immigration enforcement, essentially lending his office’s credibility to the forces pulling kids out of class.
It is a remarkable set of priorities.
Nevada students are reading and doing math at rates that should alarm every policymaker in Carson City, and a sitting state senator is more interested in amplifying protest energy than demanding that children stay in school and learn?
The Adults in the Room Are Choosing Sides
What makes this moment more troubling is how many adults with authority over children decided to encourage rather than redirect these walkouts.
The NEA was not neutral. Sympathetic teachers opened classroom doors to organizers. School administrators in some districts looked the other way or sent official communications facilitating student departure from campuses.
In Nevada’s Washoe County, students walked out en masse on January 30th as part of the national “shutdown” campaign.
The ACLU of Nevada immediately threatened litigation against any school district that issued truancy marks, warning schools to spend their time on “student support” rather than enforcing attendance rules.
Meanwhile, Nevada’s chronic absenteeism rate was already 25.9% as of last school year – meaning more than one in four Nevada students is already missing so much school that their learning is at serious risk.
Adults with influence over young people in this state should be doing everything possible to get kids into seats, not cheering when they walk out.
A Choice About What Schools Are For
This debate is, at its core, a question about purpose. Are schools educational institutions, or are they organizing grounds for political theater?
Supporters of the walkouts frame the question as one of free speech and civic education.
But free speech does not obligate schools to abandon attendance requirements, and civic education does not require leaving campus during instructional hours.
Protest can happen on weekends. It can happen after school. It can happen in a hundred ways that don’t strip already-struggling students of more learning time.
When Texas and Florida drew clear lines, they did so because parents in those states demanded it.
Nevada parents deserve the same clarity from their elected officials.
The question they should be asking their legislators is simple: If Nevada’s students are already falling behind the rest of the country, why are you celebrating when they miss school?
The answer to that question will say a great deal about who in Carson City is actually working for Nevada’s kids and who is working for something else entirely.
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