Tri City HS Walkout Students ‘Encouraged, Aided’ by Controversial Activist Groups

Some of the students were seen unsafely hanging out of vehicles during the walkout. (video from Tri City Socialists-Facebook). Several walkouts at area high schools on Friday January 30 were strongly encouraged and aided by some controversial area activist groups.   One of them was Tri City Socialists, whose Facebook page says they have 888 followers.   The group openly equates capitalism with Fascim, and advocates against it and other fundamental aspects of American society, government.  However, it is fair to say with just 888 followers they do not necessarily make up a majority of the Tri-City area's opinions.

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The Socialist group posted numerous images and posters online urging people to support the student walkouts, and has other postings railing against conservative-themed causes, beliefs and the current  Administration.

The students also received assistance and publicity from a group known as Indivisible Tri Cities, who distributed some 'anti-ICE' whistles to marchers.  Indivisible has held rallies and publicly voiced support for the illegal activities in Minneapolis. They reportedly emphasized non-violent action, but still pledged full support for what's happened in Minnesota.

Multiple reports indicated the walkouts allegedly were largely student-organized, but many citizens doubt their ability to pull together such a coordinated effort without direct outside leadership.

A study of their website and other public information shows Indivisible, while claiming to save and support Democracy, is largely very left-leaning in their activities.

Kennewick and other area school districts warned students that cutting class to attend these protests would result in a non-revokeable unexcused absence on their attendance record, which for some, could cause significant issues.

   There was also an accident that occurred near the end of the Kamiakin student protest, but whether it was directly related to the walkout has not been established.

 What's The Opinion of "Regular" High School Students?

I talked with several anonymous Kamiakin students over the weekend,  in their opinion, the protestors and walkout seemed to be organized by a certain group of students who are not considered to be part of the mainstream student body.  While these students saw information on TikTok and other social media, they said you have to be "involved" or a follower of these kinds of activities in order to hear about them on a regular basis.

The anonymous students said they, and many others, are too busy with school, jobs, sports and activities to be engaging in walkouts or protests that in their opinion many students don't fully understand.

They also cynically said many of the protestors just did it to cut class--regardless of the reason.