WASHINGTON — Classes were put on ice.
An Arizona school district is under fire for allowing hundreds of students to cut class to attend an anti-ICE protest — allegedly without notifying parents or asking for their permission to take their kids off school grounds for a politicized demonstration.
Conservative non-profit America First Legal is accusing Flagstaff Unified School District (FUSD) of violating parents’ rights and has filed a public records request, demanding that officials release all documentation about the planning and organization of the walk-out.
Back in late January, classes were cut short across four middle and high schools in FUSD for around 800 students to gather near city hall in Flagstaff, Ariz., to rail against ICE. Staff even accompanied the students.
Some parents have since claimed that they weren’t notified or asked permission for their child to leave school grounds in the middle of classes to participate in the protest.
“Following the protest, FUSD stated that ‘[a]ttendance was taken during each class period [during the anti-ICE protest], and standard attendance procedures were applied if a student was not present in class,’” a complaint from America First Legal, a right-leaning advocacy group, claimed.
“FUSD provided no information regarding when it first learned of the protest, how it formulated its response plan, or what consequences students faced for leaving class and school grounds without permission.”
A spokesperson for FUSD told The Post that its “schools remained open and operational during the student-initiated walkout, and standard attendance and student supervision procedures were followed throughout the school day.”
“FUSD continues to encourage students to express their perspectives in thoughtful and safe ways that do not disrupt learning or compromise student safety,” the spokesperson added.
America First Legal, which is representing an upset parent in the school district, submitted records requests on Feb. 27 to learn about how the protest came about and school procedures for taking students off school grounds.
On Thursday, it slapped a complaint against FUSD in the Arizona Superior Court, demanding that the school district be compelled to fork over those documents, claiming it received none of them thus far.
The document request was comprehensive and demanded all materials and communications related to the anti-ICE protest.
“When a school district goes completely dark after a public records request by a parent seeking information related to how a school is trying to use children as political pawns, it raises serious questions about what it may be hiding,” James Rogers, Senior Counsel at America First Legal, said in a statement.
“If FUSD won’t follow the law voluntarily, AFL will enforce compliance in court and bring the truth into the light.”
Notably, America First Legal was founded by White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller, a staunch immigration hardliner.
When asked why the district hasn’t been responsive to the records requests sought by America First Legal, an FUSD spokesperson told The Post that it is “currently managing a high volume of public records requests.”
“This request will be fulfilled once the requests submitted ahead of it have been completed,” the spokesperson said.
At the time of the FUSD walk-out, the country was grappling with a firestorm over the tragic deaths of Renee Good, who accelerated her SUV in the direction of an immigration enforcement officer before getting shot, and Alex Pretti, who was shoved to the ground and shot after standing between an officer and a woman.
Both were protesting the Operation Metro Surge immigration crackdown in Minnesota, which the Trump administration ordered due to controversy over a gobsmacking welfare fraud scandal. That operation has since wound down.
