Thomas Jefferson Middle School students in Valparaiso plan a walkout April 1 to protest the Trump administration’s actions and policies.
The students plan to walk to Fairgrounds Park, eighth-grader Corey Caristi said.
Principal Mark Maudlin didn’t want the students to cross the railroad tracks further south of the school, Caristi said.
“He didn’t really want us leaving school in the first place,” Corey said. “We didn’t really want to go north because it’s not as busy.”
“The school said they will not participate positively or negatively,” Corey said, so no faculty member or school resource officer will be involved. Councilwoman Barb Domer will be among the adults watching and cheering, but from across the street, he said. It’s the students’ protest, after all.
Valparaiso Community Schools Superintendent Jim McCall did not return a request for comment.
Corey’s mother, Perrin, is supportive of Corey’s plan.
“I am really proud that a lot of students are actually aware and knowledgeable. I think it takes a lot of courage because there is some degree of risk associated. Not all parents are going to be on board,” she said.
“I do know that the school said parents would have to sign out the students in order for them not to be truant,” Perrin said.
“We’re thinking maybe upwards of 40-45 people” will participate, Corey said. “I’m providing a megaphone. I’m spreading the word.”
“We’re allowed to discuss it,” expressing their First Amendment rights, but the school isn’t allowing posters. A student who put up a poster at school was given a lunchtime detention, Corey said. Promoting the protest is being done by word of mouth and social media.
“It is a little scary for me as a parent because of the counterprotests,” Perrin said. Corey asked that the time of the protest not be shared with the public for that reason.
During Valparaiso High School’s walkout, some people driving by expressed support for the students’ protest, but others showed their opposition, Perrin noted.
“I don’t necessarily plan on marching with the students. I think it has more impact when it is just the students doing this,” she said. “I would rather take a back seat,” providing supervision but not participation.
Corey is more politically active than Perrin was at that age. “I was vaguely politically aware, kind of sort of,” she said. When she graduated in 2002, there wasn’t as much social media and access to the internet until she was in 10th grade.
What she knew of politics was whatever her adult family members and teachers talked about.
“Corey and a lot of his peers are more politically aware and active than I was,” Perrin said. She has been to one of the anti-Trump protests downtown and was involved in the first Moral Monday vigil.
“I’ve been to three” protests, including one of the No Kings protests, Corey said. “I attend a lot of political events.”
“We’re trying to get the attention of some of the people who are still in support of this administration and are still casting their vote to Republicans,” he said.
Corey’s grievances include deportations, mistreatment of legal and illegal immigrants, and people in the Trump administration not being held accountable for anything.
“For starters, I think that getting more voters in the midterm election would be a thing that I want to see,” he said. Early voting in Indiana begins April 7. The deadline to register to vote is April 6.
“The really big thing for me is the people in the admin to be held accountable and maybe have some charges against them,” Corey said.
That includes former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, now special envoy for the Shield of the Americas, for “standing by and allowing and prompting murders” by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Corey said, along with Attorney General Pam Bondi, for “lying and deflecting questions in multiple Judiciary Committees in regard to the Epstein files, and especially Donald Trump for everything he’s done. I can’t think of a single good thing he has done.”
Corey will miss German and most of his social studies class. Anyone who skips out, without a parent signing them out, will be punished, he said. If there’s a test or important homework, the student will be able to do it the next day.
Corey’s political ambitions extend far beyond the walkout.
“I have a few ideas, but one of the ideas is I do slightly want to go into the legislative branch of government, specifically the House of Representatives,” because Congress represents the people. “That sounds like something that would be a good career.”
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
