Students create signs for a walkout at Kubasaki High School on Camp Foster, Okinawa, March 10, 2025. (Elysia Smith)

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Roughly 45 students at Kubasaki High School staged a walkout Monday to protest a Pentagon policy affecting diversity initiatives, joining a series of similar demonstrations at Defense Department schools in Asia and Europe.

The students walked out of class at 7:25 a.m. and remained outside for 25 minutes, according to a letter sent to parents by principal Silvanus Thrower. A copy of the letter was provided to Stars and Stripes by protest organizers.

“We ask for your partnership in working with your child to discuss meaningful actions they can take to engage in their community,” Thrower wrote.

Enrollment at the school is 573 students, according to its website.

The protest, like others at Defense Department Education Activity schools, was directed at a Jan. 27 executive order by President Donald Trump that eliminated diversity, equity and inclusion programs established under previous administrations, according to the organizers.

“We wanted to lend our voice to that call, that we are not just going to sit down and let these orders pass that we as the public did not approve of,” senior Benjamin Cozart said in an interview after school at the Camp Foster food court. “Especially because this is impacting us, we want to do our part — our civic duty — and push back against that.”

Cozart, along with junior Elysia Smith, and freshman Maggie Brookover, helped organize the walkout.

Student protesters at Kubasaki High School pose during a walkout at Camp Foster, Okinawa, March 10, 2025. (Trent Lewis)

During the protest, students delivered speeches about DODEA policies related to diversity, organizers said. They also placed their handprints in paint on a banner that read, “Don’t Prevent Access.”

The demonstration mirrored actions taken at several other DODEA schools, including Kaiserslautern, Wiesbaden and Ramstein high schools in Germany; Humphreys High School in South Korea; Kadena High School on Okinawa; Nile C. Kinnick High School in Yokosuka, Japan; and Patch Middle School in Stuttgart, Germany.

Stars and Stripes was not permitted to cover the protest on campus. DODEA requires parental consent for student interviews and photographs, and the school did not know in advance which students would participate, spokeswoman Miranda Ferguson said in an email Friday. She did not respond to further questions on Monday.

Trump’s order has led to the review and potential removal of certain books and classroom discussions related to diversity, equity and inclusion, the Kubasaki organizers said. It could also limit some school clubs and extracurricular activities and end official observances such as Black History Month.

At Kubasaki, 69 books have been removed from the library, Cozart said. He did not identify specific titles but said they addressed topics related to gender identity, diversity and equity.

Posters celebrating Black History Month were taken down in February, and the library has scaled back plans for other month-specific observances, including Women’s History Month, according to organizers.

Students create signs for a walkout at Kubasaki High School on Camp Foster, Okinawa, March 10, 2025. (Haley Hinsley)

The school will also discontinue Advanced Placement psychology next year, Cozart said. A DODEA memorandum issued in February listed the course among several programs with “selected instructional resources that should not be used” pending review.

In a letter to students’ families on Monday, DODEA Pacific Region Director Lois Rapp said the agency does not endorse school protests but often coordinates with students in advance.

“DODEA respects the right of our students to engage in peaceful expression of their Free Speech rights,” she wrote. “Whether given advance notice or not, school administrators work to ensure assembled acts of student-led advocacy remain peaceful and respectful events that do not interfere with the rights of others and do not disrupt learning.”

Administrators also inform students of their responsibilities and potential consequences for participating in protests, Rapp wrote.

Cozart said there were no repercussions for the walkout.

“The protest itself and everything we did were within our rights as students, so there’s no consequences handed to us,” he said.