A Denver school board vice president publicly praised students who walked out of class for an anti-ICE demonstration that turned violent, leaving three people taken to hospitals and police investigating at least five reported assaults or altercations. Monica Hunter, vice president of the Denver Public Schools Board of Education and the District 4 representative, appeared at the September 4th “ICE Out” rally at La Alma-Lincoln Park. She wore a white shirt reading “Monica Hunter DPS Grad Parent Teacher” and raised her fist alongside students carrying signs including “Break the ICE,” “No one is illegal on stolen land,” and “I like my ICE crushed.”
The Colorado Youth Coalition organized the statewide walkout with help from groups including the Brown Berets of Tepetlán, a Denver-area Chicano activist group that uses the name and imagery of the militant Brown Berets movement founded in East LA in 1967. Organizers expected students from more than 160 schools to leave class around noon, with Denver-area participants converging on the park. School districts along the Front Range generally said students had a right to protest but warned that leaving class wouldn’t necessarily result in an excused absence.
Cherry Creek School District explicitly declined to endorse the walkout and provided students with a designated protest area on campus. “If a walkout occurs, our priority will be supervision, safety, and maintaining a functional learning environment for all students,” the district told families. Students who left campus would be marked unexcused, although participation in the protest alone wasn’t grounds for additional discipline.
The demonstration later turned violent. As The Denver Gazette reported, students surrounded a masked man wearing a red MAGA hat and carrying an “I love ICE” sign, threw water on him, seized the sign, and ripped it apart. A woman who the newspaper couldn’t immediately identify also had her hair pulled and was punched in the face, while other photographs showed protesters crossing a street to attack a group of counterprotesters.
Denver police reported at least five assaults or altercations inside the park. Three people were transported to hospitals with injuries whose severity wasn’t immediately disclosed, another person was evaluated at the scene, and a fifth reportedly left before speaking with officers. Police said they had contacted or identified several suspects, cited two people for graffiti, and continued investigating the violence. The department didn’t identify Hunter as a suspect or accuse her of participating in an assault.
Watch the violent confrontation at the anti-ICE rally here:
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Hunter’s appearance came months after the Denver school board formally strengthened its restrictions on cooperation with federal immigration authorities. On April 23rd, the board unanimously adopted a policy directing the superintendent not to provide federal immigration agents access to district property, records, or video without a valid judicial warrant. The policy also says students shouldn’t be questioned, detained, or removed from school custody by immigration agents without a valid judicial warrant and prior approval from the district’s attorney.
Mayor Mike Johnston took a similar step on February 26th when he signed an executive order restricting the use of Denver-owned property for civil immigration enforcement operations. The order also directed local police to protect peaceful demonstrators and use de-escalation procedures during federal immigration operations. Those policies placed both the city and its public-school system in direct opposition to several elements of President Trump’s immigration agenda.
After attending the walkout, Hunter posted that she had “proudly stood with students who chose to exercise their First Amendment rights and make their voices heard.” She said she spoke with students “who have been directly impacted by the sanctioned violence of ICE,” adding that, for some, “this was the first time standing alongside their classmates in solidarity.”
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video