In reaction to what he said he felt as a lack of action, 15-year-old Winston Churchill High School sophomore Noah Schainker organized a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement protest at his high school in March, drawing around 300 students.
Earlier this year, students across the county took action against President Donald Trump’s administration’s actions toward immigrant communities across the nation and locally. Hundreds of Montgomery County Public School students demonstrated their collected frustrations toward ICE through walkouts during school hours.
According to Brookings research, about 400,000 people have been detained by ICE from inside the United States since the beginning of the Trump Administration, and around 145,000 U.S. children have been affected from these arrests, with a majority having a Latin American background. Thirty-four percent of Montgomery County residents were born abroad, according to Montgomery Planning data, with 33 percent of Hispanic residents being foreign-born.
After feeling frustrated by the lack of action, Schainker said he emailed clubs at Churchill, explaining other high schools were protesting ICE, encouraging his peers to organize.
“I wasn’t thinking that I was going to organize,” he said. “I was just thinking, I’m going to help other clubs organize it.”
Schainker said he didn’t expect his protest to be a big event. He said student clubs who were planning with him thought the protest needed more time to be planned. However, when the time came to walk out, he said the amount of participants was “amazing.”
“I didn’t notice how many people cared that much about it because every time I go to school, and I’m sure this is for others too, it’s so dystopian. Nobody’s talking about what’s happening,” Schainker said.
Schainker said students directly impacted by ICE told him they were happy the school community came together to protest.
“I think it made more people at our school who might have not realized how much of a big deal this is, that it is a big deal,” he said.
He said that despite not being personally affected, others around him hadn’t been able to see family because of deportations or are fearful of attending school.
“I think just the fact that it’s happening to people, that period should get everybody to act and do something about it, no matter if it’s a little bit that you can do,” Schainker said.
He said his advice to other students who want to use their voice is to keep speaking out on issues.
“I really want students to understand that we might not be able to vote, and that is very discouraging, but we do have other ways to voice our opinions,” Schainker said. “I think it’s really important that we keep on trying to get out there, keep on trying to raise awareness and teach others about how important it is to speak up right now.”
He said that there has never been a change in the country without movements and gave examples like the civil rights era, which had significant student-led protests that garnered attention.
During the civil rights era, peaceful student protests sparked national attention and ultimately led to the formation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, according to the National Archives.
“I want people who don’t think it makes a difference to realize how it does,” Schainker said. “Just because you’re a kid does not mean you can’t make a difference.”
Though he said no politician has reacted to his protest specifically, Schainker said that leaders know students don’t have much power, but their voices still make a difference.
“A lot of them might know that we don’t have much power, and we’re trying everything we can to make a difference,” he said. “They see that, and I think that means something.”
Councilmember Kristin Mink, representing District 5 of Montgomery County — which includes parts of Silver Spring, White Oak and Takoma Park — since 2022, said the work students are doing is making a “critical difference.”
“They are doing it all. They are staging walkouts, they are raising their voices in protest, they are also working quietly with impacted classmates and their families to raise money, to provide community support,” she said.
Mink said she started out as a community organizer and policy advocate in the area, which led her to run for office. She also said she enjoys being at the local level of government, as they “can accomplish things.”
Mink was the sponsor of the unanimously passed Values Act, which prohibits immigration enforcement activities and created a portal for residents to report any “unauthorized” activity, which is now signed into law along with three other ICE-related bills.
“We can actually get things done a lot faster than what can happen on the federal scale,” Mink said.
The councilmember said while she attended Montgomery Blair High School, there was a student walkout on the Iraq war, and it led her to become more involved in government and politics.
“I remember during that student walkout looking around and seeing all of these students who were so passionate,” Mink said.
She said that she is “proud” of the work students have done, as she said they are directly working with impacted residents in addition to protesting.
“Often it is the youth who are leading the charge to stand up for what is right and to call out things that adults and seats of power are doing wrong,” Mink said.
The councilmember said critics who claim students protest just to get out of class are mistaken about why students participate in protests.
“I would absolutely disagree with the characterization that student walkouts are just so kids can get out of class,” Mink said. “If protest is not disruptive, then it’s not a protest.”
