Jake King

An empty Falcons Nest after the Safe Space room on Wednesday.

On Feb. 2, 2026, students across Indiana walked out of school in protest against the increase of Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Indiana. More locally, students at Southport High School walked out that morning. When news spread to students at Perry Meridian High School, the neighboring school of Southport, students began preparing for their own walkout after lunch.

During C-Lunch, which was 45 minutes before the impromptu walkout was meant to take place, students were allegedly making signs in the cafeteria in protest of ICE. With only a few minutes left in C-Lunch, Principal Kert Boedicker announced over the PA, “the building will be placed on hold,” and they “will be monitoring who leaves.”

After this announcement, some students in D-Lunch felt upset. 

“I think this is one of the only ways that students can protest. We only have limited rights and I think that a walkout is a good way to show that even though we are students, we can still stand up for what we think,” sophomore Evan Klipsch said. 

However, some students argued that their right to protest had been limited by the school. Senior Xavier Lerch said, “it feels like a restriction against our right to protest.” 

The administration at PMHS expressed worries about student safety when protesting off-campus. It is also important to note that, in a letter obtained by the FOCUS, the Indiana Department of Education stated that they, “do not support or endorse any student walkout, as instructional time must remain protected and focused on learning.”

The Department of Education further stated that school districts have an obligation to protect students. “Student safety and parental consent must remain paramount and that “[students] must have explicit permission from their parents [to leave the building].”

This seems to be the basis for PMHS’ administration’s decisions this week.

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After the bell at the beginning of 6th period, Boedicker came over the PA a second time, “Students, we deeply value student expression. We also have a very fine balance with the responsibility of making sure we keep the main thing the main thing which is learning, being neutral in our views, and, also, the safety of everyone on our campus.”

After school on Monday, students took to social media. An account titled “perrymeltice22” appeared and quickly began gaining traction. Much of the information on social media was conflicting. While perrymeltice22 announced a walkout after the fifth period on Tuesday, there were other walkouts scheduled. A group chat of over 100 PMHS students was created with the intent of organizing a large student protest during Wednesday’s passing period between sixth period and Advisory being chosen as the time for the walkout.

On Tuesday morning, Boedicker came over the PA again emphasizing that “students have rights and inherent responsibilities.” He continued to say, “Your right is also balanced against our school need to prevent a substantial disruption to the educational process or interfere with the rights of others and their right to learn […] We must ensure our campus remains focused on intellectual inquiry and personal growth free from the political divisions that are outside our walls.” 

No student walkout occurred on Tuesday, however, after D-Lunch, a black sign could be seen over the head of a girl in the hallway. Reading “The Wrong ICE is Melting,” the girl, who will remain anonymous, carried the sign throughout the 11 hallway and into the main hallway by the IMC.

“I feel like everyone else is scared to do it right now, and I feel Mr. Boedicker is kind of silencing us. Someone had to start it,” she said.

While walking around the hallways, administrators were close behind her. “[Admin] was following us, but I just kept walking.”

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After school on Tuesday, Student Voice (StuVo) representatives met with Boedicker and attempted to make plans for how to help students through their frustrations. After the meeting, a post was sent out on all of the StuVo Instagram pages that said, “Tomorrow during lunch, the Falcon’s Nest will be available as a safe space for students to meet, talk and decompress.” 

When students arrived at the Falcon’s Nest, however, they were surprised not to see any administrators or staff present.

“Not one teacher,” the source said. “Just a clipboard.” 

The lack of supervision raised questions among some students about the purpose of the space. “Having a clipboard there is contradictory,” the source said. Without facilitation, students said the discussions were similar to conversations already occurring in common areas on campus. 

“Is it really any different than sitting in a lunchroom talking with your friends about it?” the source asked.

According to the source, the situation contributed to heightened tension among students. “It caused a lot of unrest,” the source said. “It made everything scale up. People were angrier.”

Multiple StuVo members claim that during the meeting, they proposed that translators, counselors and English language learners should be present in the room.

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A different anonymous student approached Boedicker to organize a walkout during the pep session. “They had me sit down with [administrators]. While there, they told me that they are pinning most of the disruption of learning on me because I started the group chat [which was planning a walkout],” she said. “[The administrators] then said that if I don’t de-escalate the situation then I would be looking at being expelled or suspended at the minimum.” After this conversation, she was disciplined.   

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On Wednesday night, students wrote messages on the sidewalk outside of the main entrance to the high school. These messages said phrases such as, “Tinker v. Des Moines,” “Love>Hate,” “Neutrality is Cowardice” and several others. In response, the school sent people out to wash off of these messages and, by 10 a.m., the messages were gone.

After school on Thursday, StuVo met again with Boedicker. In this meeting, StuVo intended to follow up about the implementation of the safe space room. Instead, the meeting turned to address the following day’s Winter Pep Rally. “[The Tuesday walkout] kind of got sideways. And [some of the students who were planning to participate in the walkout] started bringing in, ‘This isn’t going to be peaceful.’ ‘There’s going to be violence there.’ ‘Kids are going to be bringing weapons.’ ‘Kids are going to bring knives,’” said Boedicker about these reports.

Seemingly, due to these safety concerns stemming from Tuesday’s walkout, Boedicker cancelled the pep session during Advisory for Friday Feb. 6. “I felt so angry and upset because I felt like we’ve worked so hard for this and for years we haven’t been able to perform,” said junior Cy-ell Pendergrass, who planned on performing for Winter Guard during the pep session.

Mandatory Academic Assistance (MAA) was also cancelled for Advisory. The only activity that was permitted during Advisory was the World Cultural Showcase practice. Due to the nature of not having MAA, the World Cultural Showcase practice had World Ambassador student leaders at the Aux. Gym doors, ensuring no one was entering or exiting without explicit permission. 

The week ended with no clear conclusions for future actions.

Though he agreed to an interview with the FOCUS, Boedicker was unavailable for comment.