Clovis police pursue charges against adults who attended ICE student walkout
The Clovis Police Department announced Wednesday evening it will file misdemeanor charges against adults who attended Tuesday’s Clovis Unified student protest against ICE and President Trump’s deportation agenda.
The police department’s announcement came in a late Wednesday joint press release with Clovis Unified School District, one day after the student walkout. More than 200 students marched to the intersection of Clovis Avenue and Shaw Avenue on Tuesday morning to protest, the latest in a series of anti-ICE student walkouts across Fresno-area school districts in recent weeks.
The student protesters walked out of multiple Clovis Unified schools, including Clovis High, Clovis East High and Clark Intermediate School.
During the protest, multiple adults were observed actively encouraging, organizing, and facilitating students leaving school without authorization, police said.
“These actions are unacceptable,” the police and school district’s statement read. “Adults who contribute to or promote truancy place minors at risk and interfere with their education.
Since the Jan. 30 national strike protesting the killings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis, hundreds of students in Fresno and surrounding areas have taken to the streets each day to protest ICE.
Over the weekend, a group of 10 superintendents in Fresno County, including Clovis Unified Superintendent Corrine Folmer, issued an open letter to parents urging an end to the student walkouts. The superintendents said there are safety risks involved when students leave campus to protest.
Clovis Police said they have identified two adults at the protest and are working to identify the others involved in the Tuesday protest, with plans to file misdemeanor charges for “Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor.” Typical violations under California’s legal provision on parental liability include providing alcohol or drugs to minors or assisting a child in committing a crime.
The general penalty for this violation in California is up to a $1,000 fine and up to one year in jail, said Ty Wood, spokesperson for the police department.
The police department monitored the walkout in real time with a network of approximately 500 cameras, and recorded the event with the COW vehicle.
“Right now, we’re working to identify all of the adults that officers saw. Once they have that, they’re going to use the recordings from our surveillance cameras, mainly our COW car (Camera on Wheel),” Wood said. “They’ll be using that video footage along with other information that they may get to file charges for that.”
A parent of a student protester who attended the protest told The Bee none of the adults who were there encouraged students to protest. The students organized the walkout and spread the word through social media, the parent said.
“They’re all going to be able to vote for the next president, so I figured supporting this is getting them engaged in the idea of, they have a voice, and getting the young kids to vote,” said the parent, who asked not to be identified.
The parent said she and some other parents drove or walked along with the students to keep the students company. The parents helped students safely cross the streets and supplied them bottled water and snacks. The parent saw a police surveillance vehicle at the student walkout.
Clovis Unified spokesperson Kelly Avants said the district had seen social media posts talking about the possibility of walkouts. The district had worked collaboratively with local law enforcement to make sure they were aware of the possibility.
The event was not sanctioned by, overseen, or authorized in any way by the school district. Therefore, no one from the district was present, Avants said.
Wood said the police department had multiple uniformed patrol officers in their vehicles or on motorcycles to monitor the students and to make sure that the officers could be there if needed.
“Our main priority is to keep the students safe. We saw on camera several of them walking outside of the crosswalks as they crossed major intersections,” Wood said. “Some of them got very close to being hit by drivers, and then that would have been a horrible, unfortunate accident, right?”
Another parent who attended the student walkout told The Bee late Wednesday the police and school district’s press release inaccurately stated parents encouraged students to leave school.
“To be clear, the children did this all on their own. There was no changing their minds about this,” the parent, who asked not to be identified, said. “We were showing up for our children and for other children as well. I don’t appreciate the implication that some of our parents and other community members who are just showing up for our community were somehow doing something nefarious or wrong.”
The parent said some counter-protesters arrived at the scene. One woman wore a “California for Trump” shirt and said she wanted to talk to students, the parent said.
“There could have been a lot more coordination between Clovis PD and Clovis Unified if they wanted it to be. I’m sorry that they don’t like children walking out on an education. I understand that. I agree with that,” she said. “However, some things are more important, and saying something before we have our children ripped out of our schools by masked agents, I feel like that’s important. Our children are standing up now while they still can.”
The parent said she knew her daughter, who recently turned 18, planned to participate in the walkout.
“I encouraged her not to do it for various reasons,” the parent said. “But she’s my child, and I’m still going to support her.”
A state law, Senate Bill 955, allows middle and high school students to be excused from school for one day per school year for civic or political events if they submit notices in advance.
Very few students followed the district’s required process to check out of school on Tuesday, according to the press release. Clovis Unified said it is currently identifying students who left campus without authorization and taking action for truancy enforcement.
This story was originally published February 12, 2026 at 6:00 AM.
