Liam Fisher hadn’t been thrilled with the nation’s direction.
“I don’t particularly like (that) our country is sending untrained people, arming them, giving them money to kidnap people, murder them,” said Fisher, 17, referring to recent federal immigration enforcement activities in Minnesota.
So in early February, the St. Petersburg High School senior and his friends decided to stage a protest during classes.
“We wanted it to be heard,” Fisher said. “People our age are actually aware of what is happening, and they aren’t just able to tell us that everything is OK and we’ll just believe it.”
Over multiple days of protests, dozens of students walked out of St. Petersburg High — as did thousands more at other local schools — leaving administrators to determine if and how they should be disciplined. Fisher, for one, was cited for a major campus disruption on par with making a bomb threat, receiving a three-day out-of-school suspension — a punishment his family immediately challenged.
Across the state, schools have faced heavy pressure from state officials to clamp down on protest-like activities and any educators who support them. The state has limited powers when it comes to handing out student punishment: By law, control over discipline falls squarely to local school boards, which adopt and revise codes of conduct that principals are left to enforce.
The state has much more leeway to lean on educators through its Principles of Professional Conduct, which is how education commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas has pushed his position that protests have no place in schools. Kamoutsas has said students can express themselves on their own time and has called on parents to report school employees who “encourage” students to walk out, promising to “immediately take action.”
Two Hillsborough County lawmakers caught Kamoutsas’ attention when they called on the state to remove the certification of a principal they accused of helping a student protest. The principal reportedly directed the activity to the school football field rather than punishing teens for walking out of classes.
These threats and warnings have left teachers and principals, who historically have aimed to keep students safe when expressing their views, on tenterhooks. Many schools cautioned families that students could be disciplined for the types of protest activities that state officials did not condone.
Punishments have varied widely from school to school, county to county, ranging from reprimands to out-of-school suspensions. Specific numbers are not available, as districts across Florida say they do not keep counts of punishments and that each case is assessed individually according to local rules.
“In general, you always look at what is the accusation and what is the code (of conduct), then match the discipline to the code,” said Kevin Hendrick, Pinellas County superintendent.
This method of reviewing student behavior is nothing new. But its application to student protests is.
New pressure on protesters
The state didn’t use such a heavy hand when students held political walkouts in the past.
When kids walked out of classes in 2018 to rally against gun violence in the aftermath of the Parkland massacre, school officials looked to turn the heightened interest into a teaching moment. At events throughout Florida, students showing solidarity with the victims were encouraged to tell adults about their thoughts and fears.
Discipline wasn’t at the fore in 2022 either, when students protested the Legislature’s proposal to limit classroom instruction about LGBTQ+ issues in the bill that many teens derided as “Don’t Say Gay.” School leaders worked with students to ensure the actions were not disruptive, saying they were supporting students and allowing them time to express their convictions.
Kurt Browning, Pasco County’s superintendent during both those times, recalled that the state didn’t weigh in, and principals were allowed to use their judgment.
“We never punished anybody. We didn’t have to. We allowed them to do what they wanted to do within reason, and they went back to class,” Browning said, noting how rarely current events prompted mass movements. “It’s always worse when you try to suppress it.”
Moses May was a Gaither High freshman when he led a student rally supporting LGBTQ+ rights in 2022. He remembered talking about holding a walkout but deciding to demonstrate along N Dale Mabry Highway before classes began, in part to stay on good terms with the administration.
The most important thing is to get your message out, said May, who now studies at Cal State University Long Beach.
“Don’t do something stupid, but don’t do nothing, either,” May said via text message. “History will remember you as being brave for standing up for what’s right when the time comes, but don’t get yourself in enough trouble where you can’t do anything anymore. At least, not yet.”
Eliza Lane was a junior at Palm Harbor University High when students decided to protest the removal of “The Bluest Eye” from the curriculum in 2023. Officials said some content relating to rape was not appropriate, though they later reversed course.
Lane said her group was cautioned against disturbing classes and calling out political leaders, but she recalled the vibe as “more that admin was afraid of getting in trouble than that they wanted us to get in trouble.”
It was easy to comply, Lane said via email, but also frustrating to feel like teens were being more courageous than adults. As the state’s threats grow with the ICE protests, she said, the greater the administrators’ hesitancy becomes.
“What is happening in schools today is a deeply concerning extension of what happened three years ago in that our government continues to push a political agenda and silence dissent in our school systems, and, simultaneously, our schools remain complacent in the ongoing dismantling of our national freedoms and securities,” added Lane, who now studies at the University of Florida.
“But now more than ever, we need our school administrators to be brave.”
For students, no regrets
Teachers and union leaders, whom state officials have accused of indoctrinating students to protest, roundly reject allegations that they encouraged walkouts.
In interviews and press conferences, they’ve stressed that their goal has been to keep students safe as they express their own views, as is their right.
“Neither PCTA nor the (Florida Education Association) has ever encouraged or participated in student walkouts concerning any topic,” Lee Bryant, president of the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association, said via text message.
Still, the possibility that educators could face state reprisals has prompted districts to take a stricter line.
Pinellas superintendent Hendrick would not discuss the discipline handed to specific students after anti-ICE protests but stressed that each would receive due process considerations.
St. Petersburg High senior Fisher and his family had hoped for more. Tagged as the organizer of a class-time protest on a main thoroughfare at the edge of campus, he had ignored the principal’s request to reschedule the event to a more controlled lunchtime demonstration. In the aftermath, Fisher received the stiffest publicly known penalty at the school.
The Times requested information about the types of discipline handed out in Pinellas and other districts, but those districts had not provided it by Tuesday.
Liam Fisher, 17, helped organize a walkout at St. Petersburg High School in early February, in protest of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He received a three-day, out-of-school suspension. (Martha Asencio-Rhine/Tampa Bay Times/TNS)
Fisher’s initial punishment, including his three-day suspension, was commensurate with incidents like inciting a riot. The state requires that such offenses be reported to law enforcement, which greatly concerned his mom.
“He stands to lose National Honor Society and a host of other scholarships,” Angela Fisher said shortly after filing an appeal with the school.
Principal Darlene Lebo adjusted the violation to “inciting a disturbance,” a lesser offense that doesn’t come with state reporting requirements.
Fisher, who wants to study marine biology at the University of California, San Diego, suggested the pushback against protests missed the point.
For one, he said, telling students they can’t go to class because they walked out of class seems silly.
“For three days I got to sleep in, I tried to do schoolwork, and I slept in some more,” he said. “It’s like you’re getting punished with a reward.”
Beyond that, many kids who feel strongly are unlikely to back down, particularly when they’re barred from action.
“In my situation I felt as though this was not something I was going to regret,” Fisher said. “I still feel that.”
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