IFT: Our Young People Will Always Lead Us
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Union of educators and state workers expresses solidarity for student walkouts, demanding “ICE Out”
Skokie, Ill. – As students continue to expand the frequency and size of walkouts challenging ICE’s occupation in U.S. cities in which agents are kidnapping and killing their neighbors, Pankaj Sharma, Secretary-Treasurer of the Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT), released the following statement:
“This entire school year has been marred by the President’s threats to our school communities. Students have had the impossible task of focusing on their learning while they’ve been worried about whether federal agents may kidnap their friends, their parents, and for their own safety and well-being. From Birmingham’s children’s march to the walkouts we are witnessing today, history shows us that when the adults in the room fail, young people lead the way.
“Illinois Federation of Teachers members have stood up to protect our students by negotiating sanctuary into contracts like Chicago educators maintaining watch and forming walking school busses like in Aurora, and ultimately to demanding Congress cut funds to ICE and the Governor prioritize funds for the social workers, counselors, and crossing guards that could support them better through what they are facing.
“In the fall, students were asking their teachers if the checks and balances, democratic principles, and constitutional rights they learned about in history and civics classes still applied. Now, they are walking out in protest from Waukegan and Chicago to Evanston, Maywood, and Hammond, Ind. because this administration has demonstrated - with deadly results - that the promise of America we teach about has never applied evenly and will only be realized by those who fight for it.
“The Illinois Federation of Teachers stands in solidarity with students as they exercise their constitutional rights, take up the mission of their generation, and do their part to turn back the authoritarianism of this administration on behalf of their friends, family, neighbors and themselves.”
Pankaj Sharma is the Secretary-Treasurer of the Illinois Federation of Teachers. In October, 2025, he penned an op-ed, “ICE Raids Are Traumatizing Our Students. Illinois Must Fight Back.” While IFT members in the Attorney General’s office power the legal cases defending the rights of the people of Illinois, the union is organizing members across the state to perform know your rights workshops and form rapid response teams to protect the safety and rights of students to learn free of intimidation, harassment, or danger from federal agents.
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