PHOTO: Students from Arkadelphia High School hold signs and flags along the city’s main thoroughfare in protest of U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. | Joel Phelps/arkadelphian.com
By JOEL PHELPS | arkadelphian.com
Following a trend in schools across Arkansas, a small group of students from Arkadelphia High School staged a walkout in protest of federal immigration activity nationwide.
At about 11 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, about a dozen AHS students and a parent—most of them holding anti-ICE signs or Mexico flags—gathered at the school parking lot to commence a half-mile march to the corner of Pine Street and W.P. Malone Road. The scene was akin to an impromptu pep rally. Rhythmic Latin music thumped from a portable speaker as the teens, keeping to the edge of a city sidewalk, chanted and shrieked as passersby honked their horns at them.
By noon, the racially diverse group had grown to more than 20 as others trickled in, one by one, having arrived by personal vehicle. Some adults also joined the activity, which was met with several gestures of opposition.
The demonstration continued for two hours before a smaller portion of the group migrated a few blocks east to Pine Plaza, where they continued their protest for at least the remainder of the school day.
School district responds ahead of protest
While it isn’t clear when students began planning the demonstration, by Monday word of the event had prompted school administrators to notify parents of the district’s neutral stance.
In a message dated Feb. 9, parents received this message from administration:
Arkadelphia High School is required, as a public school, to remain neutral on political and social issues while ensuring that student expression does not disrupt learning or create a hostile environment.
The Arkadelphia School District Board of Education sets district policy in accordance with state and federal law. As such, Arkadelphia High School cannot authorize or sponsor student walkouts and encourages students to remain in class during instructional time. If a walkout occurs, staff responsibilities will shift from instruction to prioritizing student safety.
While students have the right to express their views, the First Amendment does not exempt them from attendance requirements. Under the Arkansas ACCESS Act, the school may not grant excused absences for protests or walkouts. Students who miss instructional time or leave campus will receive an unexcused absence and may face additional consequences as outlined in the student handbook.
The school will not tolerate harassment, intimidation, threats, or discrimination and remains committed to maintaining a safe learning environment. We will continue to focus on the success of all students.
Arkadelphia High School Administration
The next day, the school principal addressed the student body in an email, informing them that consequences for truancy could include a minimum of one day in in-school suspension (ISS) and/or a minimum of three days ISS for violating the handbook’s policy on disrupting school. Further, the principal informed students that those who would leave campus could not return that day without a doctor’s note—an everyday policy from the handbook.
In the minutes ahead of the march, a parent who spoke with The Arkadelphian alleged that the handbook policy had been updated in recent days to establish stricter truancy consequences in an effort to halt the protest. Not so, according to Superintendent Nikki Thomas, who said the school board had approved handbook revisions in December, but no discipline policies were changed.
Asked whether there had been any harassment, intimidation or threats made ahead of the demonstration, Thomas acknowledged that one report had been made to school officials regarding harassment toward a student.
Lockdown drill a coincidence?
Earlier Wednesday morning, before the walkout, a hodgepodge of more than a dozen first responders—including city police officers and firefighters and a pair of Arkansas State Troopers—were at the school for a lockdown drill. With the exception of a couple of school resource officers, all other first responders had left about an hour before demonstrators started pulling into the parking lot.
Demonstrators suspected the lockdown’s timing with their planned walkout was a fear tactic to keep students from leaving the school. However, both police and school officials said that wasn’t the case.
The mandated lockdown drill had been planned and coordinated well in advance of Wednesday’s demonstration. Arkadelphia Police Chief Jason “Shorty” Jackson said the drill had been planned since December, and was one of two drills required during the school year. Students are made abreast of drills planned for the fall semester, and the spring semester drill is always unannounced, Jackson said.
What protestors said
Emily Santos, a junior at AHS, said her involvement in the demonstration was in honor of her uncle, a Florida resident she said ICE had detained and deported back to his native country of Honduras.
“It’s better to speak up than to stay quiet,” Santos said, acknowledging that the walkout was done during school hours to turn heads. Asked why the students didn’t wait until after school hours to protest, she said, “Nobody would pay as much attention to us if we were to do it after school.”
Santos said student participation in the protest was better than she anticipated, saying some stayed at school out of fear. “A lot of our kids are intimidated by the school board with the [threat of ISS],” she said. “A lot [of students] didn’t want to come out because they were scared.”
Of the passersby who did engage with the demonstrators, Santos estimated about 70% of them did so negatively, either by yelling profanities or making obscene hand gestures. “A lot of people are flipping us off,” she admitted. “We’ve just responded by saying, ‘God bless you’ because we can’t spread hate if we’re trying to spread love.”
The district superintendent said disciplinary actions for truancy would be handled on an individual basis.
Santos said any ramifications coming her way will be worth it, “because I’m out here standing for the people who can’t.”
Last notable walkout half a century ago
Wednesday’s walkout would be the first notable protest at AHS in 54 years.
For three consecutive years, between 1970-72, racially charged demonstrations at AHS garnered statewide attention as black students protested unfair hiring practices. When the all-black Peake High School consolidated with AHS for integration, the former school’s principal, despite more qualified credentials, was given the job of assistant principal at the newly integrated AHS.
The outcome of the infamous 1972 walkout resulted in the arrest and expulsion of about a dozen black students.
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