Students at Netzaberg Middle School in Eschenbach in der Oberpfalz, Germany, say they were stopped from staging a planned walkout on April 10, 2025. School officials say the small demonstration proceeded without incident. (Matthew M. Burke/Stars and Stripes)

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — Parents and students say that administrators initiated an unannounced lockdown drill to stop a planned walkout at Netzaberg Middle School on Thursday, a claim school officials dispute.

The incident has raised concerns in the U.S. military community near Grafenwoehr and Vilseck that the school deliberately kept students from speaking out against the removal of material deemed to support diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as the shuttering or reorganization of groups with gender, racial or cultural affiliations.

The curriculum changes are in support of White House and Pentagon orders that aim to prevent indoctrination in schools.

The walkout at Netzaberg coincided with a student-led movement involving hundreds at Department of Defense Education Activity schools in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Guam.

Students at other schools held walkouts lasting 20-35 minutes.

At Netzaberg, participating students were called back quickly for an unscheduled lockdown, three parents and two students told Stars and Stripes in phone calls Thursday and Friday.

“I would say they were outside for only two to three minutes,” said Leslie, who had parked outside the school to watch her daughter, Emmilou. “I didn’t even have time to take a picture.”

Some who spoke to Stars and Stripes asked to go by their first name or requested anonymity to protect themselves or family members from potential retribution. All students spoke with their parents’ blessings.

Tarah, an eighth grader, left band class with two other students to join the walkout. Shortly after they went outside, assistant principal Paul Crane told them to return or face unspecified disciplinary measures, she said.

Tarah and a friend had emailed the principal and vice principal a link to a shared document on Wednesday about the walkout’s time, location and purpose, and measures to ensure student safety and minimize disruptions.

“We had planned to stay out there for around 20 minutes,” she said, noting that she and others had prepared speeches.

The walkout was supposed to be “about making sure everybody has the opportunity to get the education they deserve in an honest way,” Tarah said.

Leslie said her daughter, who prepared posters and a speech, is concerned about books being removed from the school library.

“A lot of books about strong women who make a difference, those are all being removed. It’s really upsetting,” she said.

Crane, in an email that went out late Thursday afternoon to students, said fewer than 10 kids “participated in a student walkout at the end of the lunch period and prior to fourth period.”

He went on to say that “out of concern for accountability and the safety of the students, after students re-entered, I secured the building.”

DODEA backed Crane’s account of the events.

“A drill was called to ensure safety of both the Middle and Elementary School due to a shared campus and to gain accountability,” DODEA Europe spokeswoman Jessica Tackaberry said Friday in a statement.

She added that “while student-led walkouts in the past have concluded without serious incidents, the cumulative disruption to the DODEA school system negatively has impacted classroom instruction and pulled resources away from normal school operations to ensure student safety.”

Ellie Appling, an eighth grader at Netzaberg Middle School in Germany, sits outside the school on April 10, 2025, for about 25 minutes by herself. She wanted to participate in a planned walkout, which students and parents said was abruptly curtailed. School officials said the walkout occurred without incident. (Courtesy)

Crane said in his memo that “DODEA respects the rights of our students to engage in peaceful expressions of their opinions through speech and other ways.”

That language has been repeated in memos signed by administrators at many other DODEA schools. But parents say their kids were denied that opportunity.

Earlier in the week, the school “clearly stated that the children could conduct the walkout with the warning that they would be marked unexcused for whatever class they missed,” said one parent.

Some students elsewhere scheduled walkouts during lunch, while others did so during class despite the threat of unexcused absences, which may lead to further discipline such as detentions and exclusion from extracurricular activities.

Meanwhile, parents said that lockdown drills are usually announced in advance, and that this one scared some students.

Michelle Kuehn-Spino said her seventh grade son was planning to take a test but couldn’t because of the lockdown.

“He said his teacher usually tells them when it’s a drill and she didn’t,” she said. “He said that he assumed it was because of the protest, but a lot of his classmates were really scared and trembling because they thought it was a real threat.”

Once all students and staff were accounted for at Netzaberg, “the assistant principal called the all clear,” which took under 10 minutes to complete, Tackaberry said.

Ellie Appling, an eighth grader, said she was the only student who ended up demonstrating for long. She sat outside Thursday for the last 25 minutes of school, she said.

She was planning to join the walkout but didn’t make it before the lockdown was called. She went outside anyway, she said.

Ellie sat outside again for four hours Friday morning before her parents were called to pick her up. Two other students joined her at times, she said.

This time, the protest was directed more toward the lockdown, Ellie said.

“I felt like we were being silenced with something that was supposed to keep us safe,” she said. “Lockdowns are supposed to mean there’s a threat.”