Buncombe County High School Students Stage Multiple Walkouts Against ICE

About 200 students at A.C. Reynolds High School walked out at 11 a.m. Wednesday, carrying anti-ICE signs and chanting as they gathered in the school's common area, WLOS reported. The station described the Feb. 18 protest as peaceful and noted it followed similar demonstrations across western North Carolina this week.

A midday walkout at T.C. Roberson High School on Feb. 17 drew differing attendance estimates: WLOS said “more than 100” students, while 828newsnow estimated 150–200. Accounts differ on the route - WLOS reported students protested at the entrance to Biltmore Park, while 828newsnow wrote that students marched about 1.5 miles to the intersection of Long Shoals Road and Schenck Parkway and staged a protest outside a CVS Pharmacy. 828newsnow published multiple photos of students holding signs at Long Shoals and Schenck and reported chants including “No justice, no peace, no racist police,” along with profane slogans directed at ICE and President Trump. 828newsnow identified a sophomore, Jose Hernandes, as calling for the abolishment of ICE and quoted a student named Barker saying, “There’s a secret police in our country and we don’t feel safe. We want to live. We want to be free. But we’re not allowed to, for choices that we can’t make. We can’t live our lives the way we want to in a country where that’s the one thing we have against everybody else.”

The protests in Buncombe County echo a Jan. 30 “National Shutdown” day of action tied to confrontations in Minneapolis. Citizen‑Times reported that about 250 Asheville High School students walked out at roughly 11:15 a.m. on Jan. 30, gathering on the school’s front steps and along McDowell Street as organizer Henry P., 16, led chants from a megaphone. Citizen‑Times said the Asheville event was not school‑sanctioned, citing Asheville City Schools Chief of Staff Kim Dechant, and quoted Asheville High School Chief of Operations April Dockery saying the Jan. 30 walkout “was peaceful” and that administrators stood on the sidelines to ensure student safety. Citizen‑Times tied the local actions to national outrage after the Jan. 24 shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis and reported that another protester, Renee Good, was also shot and killed there in January.

Social media amplified debate about supervision and safety. Facebook posts quoted in local coverage said students “abandoned the sidewalks to occupy the center of the intersection, forcing vehicles to navigate through a sea of shouting protesters” and asked, “Where are their teachers?” A Donald Trump For President page posted a headline reading, “Asheville High School Students Bolt From Classrooms to Swarm Busy Intersection,” calling the scene “unmonitored chaos” in its excerpt.

Local outlets say Buncombe County Schools provided a statement on Feb. 17; WLOS noted News 13 had reached out to the district for more information but the full statement was not included in the excerpts provided. The publicly available accounts do not report arrests or injuries from the Feb. 17–18 walkouts. Outstanding questions remain: the district's full statement, final attendance tallies for T.C. Roberson and A.C. Reynolds, clarification of the T.C. Roberson route (Biltmore Park entrance versus Long Shoals/Schenck Parkway), and whether any traffic or police reports were filed related to intersection crowding. Reporters and officials say those items are the next steps to reconcile differing local accounts.