Students pose with signs during a protest of anti-diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at Kadena High School on Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Feb. 28, 2025. (Elisa Kai/EK Studio Photography)
KADENA AIR BASE, Okinawa — More than 60 high school students staged a walkout here Friday to protest Pentagon policies affecting diversity initiatives, the third such demonstration at a Defense Department school since Feb. 11.
The Kadena High School students — children of airmen and DOD employees — walked out at 10 a.m. for a 15-minute protest in front of the school, principal James Bleeker wrote in a letter emailed to parents that afternoon.
Stars and Stripes counted at least 80 students in photos taken from about 250 feet away.
Sophomore Elliot Field organized the walkout with support from the DODEA Student Advocacy Core Team, which also backed a Feb. 21 protest at Nile C. Kinnick High School on Yokosuka Naval Base, she said by email Wednesday. She took inspiration from that protest, where about 150 students walked out.
“It’s kind of frightening because I’ve never done anything like this before,” she told Stars and Stripes outside the school before the walkout. “I’ve always sort of been like, if something needs to get done, why not just do it? Something needed to happen.”
Field said she coordinated the protest with Bleeker. Miranda Ferguson, a spokeswoman for Department of Defense Education Activity-Pacific, confirmed in an email Friday that the demonstration was organized with school administrators.
Bleeker referred questions emailed by Stars and Stripes on Friday to Ferguson.
Kadena High School junior Mary Hardy speaks during a protest of anti-diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Feb. 28, 2025. (Elisa Kai/EK Studio Photography)
Protest organizer Elliot Field speaks about the walkout against anti-diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at Kadena High School on Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Feb. 28, 2025. (Keishi Koja/Stars and Stripes)
Kadena High School students prepare an "Our Voices, Our Schools" banner ahead of walkout protest at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Feb. 28, 2025. (Elisa Kai/EK Studio Photography)
“DODEA respects the rights of our students to engage in peaceful expressions of their opinions through speech and other ways as long as it is done respectfully, does not interfere with the rights of others, and does not disrupt learning in the school,” he wrote in his letter to parents. “Our school is committed to providing a safe environment where everyone is treated with respect and encouraged to help others.”
Ferguson barred Stars and Stripes from entering school grounds to cover the protest. DODEA requires parental consent for student photographs, she wrote in an email Friday. The school did not know in advance which students would participate, she said in a follow-up message.
The school was unable to determine whether it had “appropriate image release authority” for students taking part in the walkout, Ferguson wrote.
The Kadena protest, like those at Kinnick on Feb. 21 and Patch Middle School in Stuttgart, Germany, on Feb. 11, pushed back on a Jan. 27 executive order by President Donald Trump ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs created under previous administrations.
Among the direct effects of Trump’s order on DODEA schools are the review and possible removal of books and classroom discussions on diversity, equity and inclusion; potential restrictions on some school clubs and extracurricular activities; and the end of official observances like Black History Month.
Kinnick principal Kira Hurst told students and parents in a Feb. 5 email that the school was directed to “pause planned activities and events for cultural observances” in compliance with DOD guidance.
Kadena High has not notified students or parents of specific program changes, book removals, or the end of any activities, Ferguson said by phone Thursday.
However, Field and other students said activities such as a door-decorating contest for Black History Month were canceled.
During the walkout, junior Mary Hardy called DODEA’s policies “a step back from progress made towards representing and celebrating marginalized communities,” according to a copy of her speech she emailed to Stars and Stripes. Students erupted in cheers after her remarks.
Caleese Council, a junior, said she walked out to show support and provide “power in numbers.”
She said a Black History Month program she organized had to be moved to the Schilling Community Center after she was not allowed to hold it at the school or any enlisted clubs on base.
“We couldn’t do it anywhere,” she said outside the school after the walkout. “I don’t know why it got taken away; I feel like it’s kind of stupid.”
Hardy, who helped organize the protest, said she hoped it would inspire other DODEA students to stage their own walkouts.
“We believe that political policies shouldn’t dictate what we can and cannot learn in the classroom,” she said.
