Students at two Phoenix, Arizona high schools staged a walkout on Tuesday afternoon to protest against Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, according to one of the organizers.
Students walked out of Maryvale High School, in a northwestern suburb of Phoenix, KXNV reported. Closer to downtown, several hundred North High School students gathered in a nearby parking lot around a pickup truck carrying an effigy of Arpaio in a striped prison suit.
Arpaio faces federal contempt-of-court charges related to a 2011 complaint that Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department targeted Latino drivers solely on the basis of believing that they are in the country illegally. He is up for re-election for what could be his seventh term as sheriff.
Tuesday’s walkouts follow a protest on Friday, when 200 students from another school in Maryvale – Trevor G. Browne High – marched against Trump and Arpaio. Labor union leaders joined the Hispanic and Muslim students in the protest organized by the activist group Case Action, "fighting for social justice in Central Arizona," the Arizona Republic reported.