Maine high school students protest ICE on the Sagadahoc Bridge in Bath
Topsham Maine - Mt. Ararat Students Protest ICE. Maine Senator Susan Collins alert❗ She voted to fully 💲fund evil ICE. 😕😞
On Monday, February 2nd, 2026, students from the Midcoast area, organized by Midcoast Youth Activists, including Morse High School, Lincoln Academy, Brunswick High School and Mt Ararat descended upon the Sagadahoc Bridge to protest the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) surge in Maine that has so frightened the entire immigrant community, most of whom are already citizens, legal residents, or have work authorization and live here legally.
Mt. Ararat Senior, Ashby Hayward, as a three-season athlete and Theater participant, is an all-around ride-giver at Mt. Ararat. He coordinated rides to the event, reaching out to other friends with cars and connecting them to students who needed rides. He figures he coordinated about 50 to 60 rides to the protest, only to see initial plans fall through when they could not meet at the school due to the bomb threat that day. But, not to be defeated, Mt Ararat showed up! There were many Topsham students scattered on the bridge who found a way there.
I asked Ashby what drew him to the event. He said “It’s more important than it ever has been that young people use their voice - especially with social media.”
I confessed to him that his generation is surely more literate and effective online than mine. He responded, thinking in part about the videos of ICE’s brutality, “My generation was raised with this technology. The videos make it personal. Friends will switch their beliefs.” He says his generation can see right through propaganda, and finds Trump Administration propaganda incompetent. Though, he says, it is getting harder and harder to distinguish fake videos with the advent of AI technology. #ICEoutNOW ❗
What was Ashby’s message on the bridge? “It’s so easy nowadays to disconnect and say I don’t need to do anything. None of these problems hit them in the face. But, for others the problems really do hit them in the face.
Reported "Local Scoop", in Topsham Dems News:
Mt. Ararat Senior, Ashby Hayward, as a three-season athlete and Theater participant, is an all-around ride-giver at Mt. Ararat. He coordinated rides to the event, reaching out to other friends with cars and connecting them to students who needed rides. He figures he coordinated about 50 to 60 rides to the protest, only to see initial plans fall through when they could not meet at the school due to the bomb threat that day. But, not to be defeated, Mt Ararat showed up! There were many Topsham students scattered on the bridge who found a way there.
I asked Ashby what drew him to the event. He said “It’s more important than it ever has been that young people use their voice - especially with social media.”
I confessed to him that his generation is surely more literate and effective online than mine. He responded, thinking in part about the videos of ICE’s brutality, “My generation was raised with this technology. The videos make it personal. Friends will switch their beliefs.” He says his generation can see right through propaganda, and finds Trump Administration propaganda incompetent. Though, he says, it is getting harder and harder to distinguish fake videos with the advent of AI technology. #ICEoutNOW ❗
What was Ashby’s message on the bridge? “It’s so easy nowadays to disconnect and say I don’t need to do anything. None of these problems hit them in the face. But, for others the problems really do hit them in the face.
We need to care now and not wait until it's in our backyard. We need to love each other and not hate each other. Unlike the Trump Administration.”
On the bridge, I also found Lia, a Mt Ararat Junior. Lia’s message was clear in two words: “ICE OUT❗” Lia said, “This is about protecting our communities. It’s about letting immigrants in this country know that they are safe and that we are willing to stand up and fight for their communities and them. We desperately need to recognize the indigenous and immigrant populations. We have never, ever, been a country that is just white or English-speaking. Diversity is our greatest strength.”
What does Lia hope for the future of this country❓ “We need to change the system to keep the billionaires out of politics and keep a fair distribution of income.”
There were many, many more Mt Ararat students on that bridge,T along with several hundred students from other schools.
On the bridge, I also found Lia, a Mt Ararat Junior. Lia’s message was clear in two words: “ICE OUT❗” Lia said, “This is about protecting our communities. It’s about letting immigrants in this country know that they are safe and that we are willing to stand up and fight for their communities and them. We desperately need to recognize the indigenous and immigrant populations. We have never, ever, been a country that is just white or English-speaking. Diversity is our greatest strength.”
What does Lia hope for the future of this country❓ “We need to change the system to keep the billionaires out of politics and keep a fair distribution of income.”
There were many, many more Mt Ararat students on that bridge,T along with several hundred students from other schools.
If they are as sharp and centered as Ashby and Lia, there is hope for us all. Their energy and passion were tangible to all who were there.
Labels: Local Scoop, Mt. Ararat High School, propaganda, Senator Susan Collins, Topsham
posted by Juliana L'Heureux | 12:59 PM
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