Cries of “ICE out” echo their way through the nation, from Minneapolis all the way to Dallas.
In consecutive weeks, two Minnesota citizens were killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, sparking outrage for many people across the country, including students.
These types of events have historically served as catalysts for nationwide protests and activism after long buildups of frustration.
But at St. Mark’s — even in a time where protest culture has been running rampant across schools — students have remained relatively quiet.
It doesn’t mean that students don’t care about current events, even if the culture seemingly appears disengaged at first glance. Rather there are many determining factors that contribute to a lack of public advocacy.
In particular, students can lack a personal catalyst that would make distant issues feel urgent, the school’s mission prioritizes teaching how to think over facilitating what to protest and when public activism isn’t the norm, private engagement becomes the easier path.
“At St. Mark’s, this is my seventh year teaching here, I see the least political activism of any school I’ve ever been associated with, either as a student myself or teaching,” history teacher Dr. Andrea Hamilton said. “That doesn’t mean individual students aren’t passionate about political issues or involved with them outside of school; it just means they don’t engage politically through St. Mark’s.”
It’s human nature to not deeply care about issues until they affect one personally. Nationwide, it often takes a specific event that hits close to home to spur a crowd to action.
“Sometimes there’s an event that personalizes a big, abstract issue, and then suddenly people are motivated,” Hamilton said. “Sometimes, I think big issues are so big and so overwhelming that it’s just kind of human nature to accept it because it doesn’t feel like it’s (affecting) you.”
Historically, protests typically arise from persistent feelings of anger and discontent with a perceived gap between a society’s ideals and reality.
“If you look at U.S. history, (activism) definitely comes from a sense of people who don’t have what the promise is,” Hamilton said. “You take a place like the U.S. that has very lofty ideals that we’re proud of — equality, this rhetoric of opportunity — you historically have the groups who are left out of that.”
For many students who come from relative privilege and security, national issues may feel distant and abstract, making it harder to find that personal connection that drives public action.
While some schools will occasionally encourage specific forms of student activism, the school remains consistent in its mission to teach students how to think, not what to think.
“The school operates from a very mission-driven place which is principal neutrality…versus being an issue-driven school, we’re a mission-driven school which informs and prepares you guys to engage in the degrees that you want to around the issues that are very important to you all as individuals,” Associate Headmaster John Ashton said.
Last week, students in Austin ISD organized walkouts during the school day, which the school district neither directly supported nor prevented.
St. Mark’s approach differs — the school focuses on developing students’ ability to think critically and discuss different perspectives while getting involved in ways that don’t disrupt the daily operations — as a walkout during the school day would.
“Some schools believe that: ‘let’s not only equip them to think about but let’s help them facilitate an expression of that,’ which is, again, perfectly fine for schools who choose to do that,” Ashton said. “We stop at, ‘let’s equip you all to engage.’”
Highland Park High School (HPHS), for instance, utilizes programs such as MAPS (Moody Advanced Professional Studies), a program that focuses on bringing students’ opinions to light and facilitating direct advocacy.
“We basically advocate for change,” HPHS junior Alexander Mandich said, “If we are upset with how any curriculum is being taught, we sit down at a table with our director who can actually make changes.”
St. Mark’s tends to channel engagement differently — through student-led initiatives such as service, dialogue and inclusivity rather than institutionally organized protest.
“St. Mark’s encourages students to volunteer and to be charitable trying to make a difference in that way,” Hamilton said. “So I do think St. Mark’s walks the walk with community service and opportunity, emphasizing that’s how you make a difference. And that is another form (of civic engagement.)”
When public protest isn’t established as the norm, private and non-confrontational forms of engagement become the typical route.
Compared to those other forms, some students believe protest could risk fragmenting a tight-knit community.
“There’s an equal emphasis on both: the expression of ideas, but also maintaining the integrity of the student body,” junior Jack Shepro said. “If you polarize, try to separate people via their opinions…you kind of lose the gel that we have. You kind of lose that sacred brotherhood aspect.”
For Shepro, confrontational forms of protest might serve as something to explore beyond the high school setting.
“As far as activism in the form of protesting, I would say that something more pronounced like that, in my opinion, might not be quite suitable for a high school campus,” Shepro said. “I’m not saying activism in general is bad, or protesting in general is bad, I think it’s a good and healthy thing, just not on St. Mark’s campus, although I haven’t really seen anything like that in my time here.”
Even in cases where students feel compelled to invoke change, students may still choose quieter forms of involvement throughout high school, especially when those approaches feel within a small community than organizing or participating in a protest.
“Even if you care passionately about the issues, do you feel like you’re going to really make a difference?” Hamilton said. “Is me going out, even if I care a lot, really going to change anything? And I think there’s a lot of people that just feel overwhelmed that their individual thing that they can do isn’t really going to matter.”
When this sense of powerlessness combines with a lack of stimulus and current school norms, the end result reflects a community that stays disengaged from national activism, even when interested or cynical.
“The assumption that engagement only looks like one thing is a very limiting way to think about engagement,” Ashton said. “I think it misses the equal value placed on all the other ways people might engage.”
And while public displays of activism directly convey interest, silence doesn’t always signal apathy.
“We shouldn’t make conclusions about the decisions other people make, and that’s why I think there’s an element to consider, which is someone impacted directly and significantly who just chooses not to outwardly demonstrate, show, respond and engage, we could unintentionally make a lot of conclusions about that person which would be wrong,” Ashton said.
Because St. Mark’s averages around 110 students in Upper School grades compared to large public schools, which can house thousands of students of both genders, the school’s smaller size can allow students to feel heard through internal channels without a need for an external outlet.
Ultimately, most students have the privilege to choose alternative pathways to engage with the issues they care about inside the school without the need to take a public stand.
While the school isn’t generally known for an activist culture compared to other schools, it doesn’t mean students don’t care.
It means they engage differently.
