A thousand kids flooded a Florida overpass so fast that a father yanked his child from school mid-day.
That's what the Left calls a "peaceful student walkout."
Now Lee County, Florida is sending a very different message – and 2,480 students just found out what it costs to walk out of class to protest the men and women enforcing America's immigration laws.
What Lee County Did While Other Districts Looked the Other Way
Superintendent Denise Carlin and her team didn't flinch.
After reviewing surveillance footage, interviewing staff, and going camera by camera through 14 to 17 campuses, the School District of Lee County announced a full accounting of every student who violated the code of conduct during the February 4–6 walkouts.
The breakdown is significant.
https://twitter.com/StasiKamoutsas/status/2026706328278667541?s=20
Of 2,480 students disciplined, 134 received out-of-school suspensions and 40 more got in-school suspensions.
Another 208 landed on behavior contracts, lost extracurricular privileges, or faced restitution requirements.
Eleven were recommended for reassignment to Success Academy – the district's alternative school in Fort Myers.
The remaining 2,037 received warnings or zeroes on assignments for skipping class.
Carlin put it plainly: "The safety and security of our schools is our top priority. Ninety-six percent of our students adhered to the Student Code of Conduct by remaining in class and focused on their education during the protests."
96 percent.
That's the number the left doesn't want you to see.
The protests weren't a student uprising.
They were a coordinated disruption that pulled a fraction of Lee County's student body into conduct violations – including students scaling fences at Mariner High School in Cape Coral, defying security staff, and leaving campus in vehicles at unsafe speeds.
https://twitter.com/StasiKamoutsas/status/2025924130269254014?s=20
This Didn't Happen Without Adult Help
Florida Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas warned every school district in the state that teachers who encouraged or organized walkouts "violates professional responsibilities and warrants disciplinary action."
Then he published his direct office line and told parents to call him personally.
Governor Ron DeSantis backed him up: "Our kids are not pawns for political activism. Education, not indoctrination."
The Brevard County School Board Chair's investigation found outside organizations creating fake social media campaigns using official school logos and fabricating teacher endorsements that never existed – threatening voicemails traced to IP addresses as far away as Long Beach, California.
This wasn't organic student activism.
It was a coordinated operation using children as props.
And the union fingerprints are hard to miss.
The National Education Association voted at its 2025 national convention to formally support students' right to organize against ICE raids and deportations.
https://twitter.com/StasiKamoutsas/status/2025325005542699239?s=20
This is the same union that in 2019 defeated a resolution to rededicate itself to increased student learning.
Street activism ranks higher than classroom outcomes – and Florida parents are noticing. Of Florida's 2.8 million students, 1.4 million are now enrolled in school choice programs.
Lee County officials said they found no evidence of local teacher involvement.
The investigation is ongoing.
The Price of Disruption
The Supreme Court established decades ago that schools can discipline students whose conduct causes substantial disruption to the educational environment.
Students at four Lee County campuses – North Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Mariner, and Ida Baker – scaled fences, defied staff directives, and shut down instruction.
That's not protected speech. That's exactly what a code of conduct exists to address.
School Board member Armor Persons said it directly: "We cannot overlook these kind of things just because it's a protest. They will be disciplined exactly as if they did them on any other day."
Lee County didn't negotiate.
They reviewed the tape, identified every violation, and applied consequences from warnings to alternative school reassignment based on severity and behavioral history.
https://twitter.com/AGJamesUthmeier/status/2024965211292152120?s=20
The Left wants schools to be organizing grounds for their open-borders agenda.
Florida just proved that some districts aren't interested.
One hundred and thirty-four students have suspensions on their disciplinary records.
Eleven are sitting in an alternative school in Fort Myers.
And Denise Carlin is updating the 2026–27 Student Code of Conduct to make sure the next round of outside agitators knows the answer before they ask the question.
Sources:
- Frank Kopylov, "Lee County schools discipline more than 2,000 students over ICE protest walkouts," Southwest Florida News-Press, February 27, 2026.
- Mickenzie Hannon, "More than 2,400 Lee County students face discipline after walkouts," Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News, February 27, 2026.
- Michelle Vecerina, "Mariner High School ICE walk out turns 'chaotic' as students flee campus; Lee County district responds," Florida's Voice, February 5, 2026.
- Warner Todd Huston, "Some States Preventing Schools from Leading Anti-ICE Walkout Protests," Breitbart, February 17, 2026.
- Anastasios Kamoutsas, Florida Department of Education guidance letter to district superintendents, February 3, 2026.
- School District of Lee County, official discipline announcement, February 26, 2026.
