Pro-Palestinian protests reach some high schools amid widespread college demonstrations

As protests against the war in Gaza roil college campuses across the country, some high school students are launching their own pro-Palestinian protests.

On Monday afternoon, about 100 high school students in Austin, Texas, walked out of their classes in protest.

"I'm protesting against a government that is actively hurting people just because of where they were born and what language they speak," Pia Ibsen, a senior at McCallum High School in Austin, told USA TODAY. Ibsen helped organize a walkout and left class for about an hour and a half.

Local media reports have tracked high school students in Seattle who filled out excused-absence forms ahead of a walkout last week, and Chicago students at a college preparatory school planned a sit-in Wednesday.

The student walkouts and marches at high schools look different from the student encampments and occupations at college campuses. But they're also prompting backlash from school administrators and community members who want them shut down – some even before they begin.

New Jersey high school students canceled a pro-Palestinian walkout scheduled for last Thursday after two county commissioners wrote a letter demanding that the school district's superintendent cancel the event to protect Jewish students, reported the Cherry Hill Courier-Post, part of the USA TODAY Network.

"The student walkout is an intentional effort to create a hostile and isolating environment for Jewish students, the majority of whom support Israel as an integral part of their identity," wrote Camden County Commissioners Jeffrey Nash and Melinda Kane in a letter to Eastern Camden County Regional School District Superintendent Robert Cloutier.

Student protests have erupted at college campuses across the U.S. in support of Palestinians after Israel launched its siege of the Gaza Strip in response to Hamas' Oct. 7 surprise attack. About 1,200 people in southern Israel were killed and more than 200 taken hostage in that attack. The Israeli military response has killed nearly 35,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Gaza health ministry figures, and obliterated much of the enclave's infrastructure.

The humanitarian crisis has fueled outrage on some U.S. campuses and spurred demands for an end to investment in Israeli companies and amnesty for student protesters.

Critics said the protests fed into antisemitism on campuses and created a dangerous atmosphere for Jewish students. Some Jewish students and faculty reported that they had been targeted with harassment and threats of violence.

What are protesting high school students allowed to do?

Even at K-12 schools, students "don't check their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse doors," said Aaron Terr, director of public advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. That means school administrators can't shut down a protest unless they have "solid evidence" it will substantially disrupt the school's activities.

Terr said the main distinction between the rights of college and high school students to stage a protest stems from the fact that students live on college campuses, unlike students in high schools.

When it comes to walkouts, when students leave class as a form of protest, truancy laws, which require students to attend school, could come into play.

"From a First Amendment perspective, what's important is that the school is not treating unexcused absences differently based on the reason that the student is absent," Terr said.

Chicago students:Stage walkout in support of Palestine

Pro-Palestinian high schoolers have protested before

It's not the first time young people have spoken out against the war in Gaza. Pro-Palestinian demonstrations erupted on high school campuses soon after the Israel-Hamas war broke out after Oct. 7.

Chicago Public Schools high school students surrounded city hall carrying signs that read "Students for Palestine" and "Stop bombing Gaza" in January. About 50 high school students west of the White House held a walkout in support of Palestinians in October, a local news station reported. Oakland middle school students held a walkout and protest in support of Palestinians in February, according to Oaklandside.

Some of the earlier protests also were surrounded by controversy.

Last November at Teaneck High School in Englewood, New Jersey, a pro-Palestinian walkout organized by high school students drew criticism from local Jewish groups and drew a heavy police presence.

Contributing: Keri Heath and Jim Walsh, USA TODAY Network; John Bacon and Eduardo Cuevas, USA TODAY

Cybele Mayes-Osterman is a breaking news reporter for USA Today. Reach her on email at [email protected]. Follow her on X @CybeleMO. Contact Kayla Jimenez at [email protected]. Follow her on X at @kaylajjimenez.