Last week, some students at Blaine High School and Blaine Middle School made the decision to leave their classrooms and participate in an organized protest of federal immigration enforcement actions. As a newsroom, we made the deliberate choice to publish the first and last names of the students who agreed to speak with us.
Journalism carries a responsibility to document history accurately and transparently. A public protest, held during school hours and covered openly, is a public act. When individuals choose to step into the civic arena — to lead chants, hold signs, speak to reporters or organize peers — they are participating in the democratic process. Naming participants helps create a clear and reliable public record of that moment.
We also recognize that these are students, many of them minors. For that reason, we followed standard journalistic practice: We identified only those students who spoke with us directly and who understood they were speaking on the record. We did not publish names without consent, nor did we identify students who simply appeared in the crowd.
Including full names ensures accountability — both for the newspaper and for the story itself. Anonymous sourcing is sometimes necessary, but it should not be the default in public civic actions. By naming those willing to stand behind their words, we honor their agency and their courage to use their constitutional rights to speech and assembly.
Our role is not to advocate for or against a cause. It is to bear witness, document events truthfully and trust our readers with a complete and accurate account of what happened in our community.
