What’s being taught in New York classrooms these days? At Chloe Day School, a private Manhattan school known for its progressive politics, kindergarteners were put front and center in an anti-ICE, anti-Trump demonstration that looked more like a cable-news protest than a classroom activity.
Instead of learning phonics and finger painting, tiny students were handed protest placards condemning Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Trump administration. The children were reportedly encouraged to say they were “angry” at ICE for enforcing immigration law and arresting criminal illegal immigrants—concepts well beyond the grasp of five-year-olds.
This wasn’t some spontaneous show of kid-powered civic engagement. A nationwide walkout had been planned for Friday to protest ICE and President Trump, but frigid New York weather made an outdoor march impractical. So the protest was brought indoors—right into the school. Teachers, who allegedly wanted to join the broader walkout themselves, stayed behind only because they couldn’t leave the children unattended.
Let’s be clear: this isn’t a public school. Families who enroll their kids at Chloe Day School likely know exactly what they’re signing up for. The school occupies the same ideological universe as New York’s famously left-leaning Dalton School. So parental outrage probably isn’t keeping administrators up at night.
Still, the optics are jarring.
Photos from the event show children holding professionally worded signs, including one reading, “We are stronger together.” A fair question: who made that sign? These are kids who are barely learning to spell their own names, let alone “together.”
Even more telling were the coached talking points. When asked why they opposed ICE, children reportedly said “they feel angry.” Angry about what, exactly? One exchange summed up the absurdity: “you don’t like to see what?”
Good question.
For critics, this looks less like education and more like ideological grooming—using children as props in a political fight they’re far too young to understand. Call it activism if you want, but many Americans see it as something else entirely: adults projecting their politics onto kids who should be worrying about snack time, not federal immigration policy.
“Crazy as hell” doesn’t even begin to cover it.
BREAKING: Chloe Day School in New York held an anti-ICE protest at school where kindergartners held anti-ICE and anti-Trump signs
Little kids were encouraged to say they’re angry at ICE and the Trump admin for arresting criminal illegals
Crazy as hell pic.twitter.com/WnRQmyo9MK
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 1, 2026
