Students at Naperville Central high school walked out of class Friday, Feb. 13, during fourth, fifth and sixth hour lunch periods to protest policies enforced by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The demonstration followed a similar protest held earlier this month at Naperville North high school and was part of a broader wave of student-led walkouts nationwide focused on immigration enforcement.

Senior Vardhan Singu said he organized the protest earlier in the week after growing frustrated with current events.

“I was sick of just sitting back and doing nothing,” Singu said. “I was like, you know what, I’m actually going to do something.”

Singu created flyers to promote the walkout and distributed them during his fourth-period lunch. Teachers confiscated the materials, and Singu was later called to the dean’s office.

“They told me I can’t be handing out political stuff even though it’s my freedom of speech,” Singu said. “They were like, yeah, you have freedom of speech but you can’t be handing out political stuff on school grounds.”

Dean of Students Mike Stock said school policy requires prior approval for any materials distributed or posted in the building.

“Anything that’s distributed or hung in our building has to be approved by the Activities Office,” Stock said. “We just need to be aware of what’s being handed out.”

Stock said no formal disciplinary action was issued solely for the flyers, though students were directed to stop distributing them.

Students who left class without being called out by a parent received detentions in line with the school’s attendance policy.

“Single-period truancies are handled the same way, no matter the reason,” Stock said. “If a parent calls a student out, that’s at the parent’s discretion.”

Senior Lexi Myerscough said she participated to speak out against what she described as injustices tied to immigration enforcement.

“I am just here to peacefully protest against that with my classmates in the most effective way we can,” Myerscough said.

Myerscough said organizers intended for students to participate only during their lunch periods to limit disruption to instruction.

“This walkout was planned to only have students go during their lunch period in order to respect the educational learning,” she said. “Whether students followed that, that’s their own choice, but that was our goal.”

Junior Betty Riddle said she attended to show that students oppose ICE policies.

“My hope and goal with this protest is to show that the high schoolers do not stand with ICE,” Riddle said. “I want to show the whole community that even the younger generation doesn’t want to see our government acting this way.”

Sophomore Nathan Laurinaitis said personal experience motivated his participation.

“My best friend that I met over the summer got deported by ICE,” Laurinaitis said. “He had all his papers, but they still deported him. That was my drawing point. That’s when I said no more.”

Singu said he did not intend for classmates to face disciplinary consequences.

“I also just didn’t want people skipping class,” he said. “I didn’t know what an actual walkout is supposed to be like.”

Administrators did not provide an estimate of how many students received detentions related to the walkout.

Administrators said attendance procedures and material distribution policies remain in place for all students, regardless of cause. School officials did not indicate whether any additional discussions about protest guidelines are planned.