Chants could be heard for blocks as hundreds of Milwaukee Public School students gathered together April 24 to march through downtown Milwaukee for a Student Day of Action.
High school students from across the city gathered with signs and banners and took the microphone to protest a variety of issues −the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s actions across the United States, the U.S. funding of overseas wars, and budget and staffing cuts at MPS schools.
The march, organized by Youth Empowered in the Struggle, the youth branch of immigrant advocacy group Voces de la Frontera, started in Cathedral Square Park. Participants then marched to the Milwaukee ICE office at 310 E. Knapp St., followed by Red Arrow Park and City Hall.
Golda Meir School senior Adrianna Reams, one of the speakers at Cathedral Square, spoke about concerns of MPS superintendent Brenda Cassellius’ plans to cut more than 260 jobs. Reams echoed some of the concerns expressed by the Milwaukee teachers union, which held its own protest the day before.
“MPS has a money problem. And Brenda ‘the Butcher’ Cassellius, the superintendent, has chosen to respond to these problems by cutting hundreds of jobs, all while blocking staff’s cost-of-living adjustments,” she said.
Reams pointed out that Cassellius’ salary – a base pay of $320,000 – stands in stark contrast to the pay of MPS teachers and staff, many of whom work second or third jobs to make ends meet. Reams also argued that the loss of “trusted adults” in schools won’t improve school safety – something MPS had outlined as one of its top budget priorities.
Student speakers also expressed dissatisfaction with the Trump administration’s immigration policy and actions by ICE in Milwaukee and across the United States.
“If you are afraid of immigrants, you are afraid of yourself,” Nicolet High School senior Lorenzo Hasan said. “We are all one people. We are the 99%.”
Billy Mehr, a senior at Shorewood High School, also spoke out against ICE’s actions, among other issues – including concerns with U.S. politicians’ support of Israel during the war in Gaza and the general history of U.S. imperialism.
“The system is not broken. It’s working exactly as designed,” he said.
Melanie Leyva, the statewide college organizer for Youth Empowered in the Struggle – known as YES – said the Student Day of Action was organized by students from YES chapters across the Milwaukee Public School District, as well as Horlick High School in Racine.
“Each high school has different YES chapters, and they have their own student meetings on their respective campuses. But once a week, there’s a leadership meeting at the Voces office … and that’s where a lot of the planning happened,” Leyva said.
Students who spoke during the march expressed the importance of their generation working together to make a difference in the future of the country.
Bella Martinez, a senior at Riverside University High School who helped introduce the other student speakers, said the Day of Action was planned in the wake of anti-ICE walkouts by students across Wisconsin in January.
“We found ourselves questioning what to do after these walkouts. What was the next step to create change?” Martinez said.
The march was not sponsored by local schools, but MPS was made aware of it, organizers said. Students who attended the march had to have parents call their school for their absence to be excused. YES organized school buses and coach buses to pick up students at their schools or other gathering locations, Leyva said.
The Student Day of Action came a week ahead of Voces de la Frontera’s annual May Day march, which promotes worker solidarity and highlights the impact of immigrant workers on the economy. This year, the march will be Friday, May 1 – May Day, or International Workers’ Day – and will start with a rally at the Voces de la Frontera office at 733 W. Historic Mitchell St., followed by a march to the Milwaukee County Courthouse. A simultaneous march will take place in Madison, Leyva said.
While MPS students previously took part in Voces de la Frontera’s march on May Day, the schools don’t have classes in session May 1 of this year, so organizing students to go to the march from school wasn’t feasible, Leyva said.
“The students decided, because they still wanted to have a student voice during May Day, to organize an event that they would have school on,” she said.
Contact Kelli Arseneau at (920) 213-3721 or karseneau@gannett.com. Follow her on X at @ArseneauKelli.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee students march downtown, calling for U.S. policy changes
Reporting by Kelli Arseneau, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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