How Department of Defense Educational Activity Staff Co-Opted Diversity Equity and Inclusion Protests

In early 2025, students at Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) schools throughout Europe and Asia staged walkouts to protest a rollback of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. News outlets echoed DoDEA’s official statements, portraying the protests as student-led acts staged in defiance of school officials. But comments from DoDEA students as well as internal emails obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) suggest otherwise.

Far from standing on the sidelines, DoDEA administrators helped coordinate the protests. They directed staff to excuse students from class, assigned teachers to accompany them, and even provided time and resources for students to make protest signs. DoDEA officials distributed talking points to control the narrative and mislead parents – publicly insisting the protests were student-initiated while coordinating them behind the scenes.

These communications raise a broader concern: Was this an isolated instance of institutional overreach, or part of a deeper pattern of politically motivated actions by DoDEA staff?

Students Confirm DoDEA Staff Assisted

Students across DoDEA schools have acknowledged working with school officials to plan the walkouts – undermining DoDEA’s public claim that it “does not endorse or support any disruption to student learning or the school day.” In reality, school leaders not only tolerated the protests but facilitated them.

At Kadena High School, sophomore Elliot told Stars and Stripes that she coordinated the February 28 protest with Principal James Bleeker, a fact later confirmed by DoDEA-Pacific spokesperson Miranda Ferguson.

Multiple students at Nile C. Kinnick High School reported working with administrators ahead of their February 21 protest to arrange timing and logistics.

At Ramstein High School, senior Tristan noted that during the March 6 walkout, administrators allowed students “about 30 minutes of instructional time to protest” without issuing tardies or unexcused absences.

These firsthand accounts reveal more than passive approval – they suggest deliberate coordination between students and school officials. When students describe working with administrators on timing, location, and logistics – with no academic consequences for walking out – it exposes the gap between DoDEA’s public denials of support and its behind-the-scenes involvement.

FOIA Emails Reveal Planning and Facilitation

Internal emails obtained through FOIA requests reveal that DoDEA administrators instructed staff to accommodate the protest – excusing students from class, assigning teachers to escort them, and providing time, supplies, and classrooms to make protest signs.

One school administrator instructed staff via email:

“Ensure staff are aware that students will be participating in a walkout tomorrow. Teachers should allow students to leave class at the designated time and ensure accountability is maintained.”

Another email instructed:

“Please assign teachers to accompany students during the walkout to maintain order and ensure safety. We do not want to discourage participation but must be present.”

In other words, this was not a reluctant accommodation. This was organized support – coordinated at the leadership level.

Instructional Time Sacrificed for Protest Preparation

Among the most revealing emails was one confirming that a classroom had been set aside for protest sign creation:

“We’ve secured the art room for students to make protest signs during advisory block today.”

Rather than focusing on academics, school officials dedicated time during the school day – and taxpayer-funded school resources – to help students prepare materials for a protest.

Then, during the protests, even more instruction was lost – some for extended periods – while teachers were reassigned to monitor students instead of teach. This meant lost classroom time not only for students participating in DoDEA-facilitated political demonstrations, but also for those who did not participate – as their teachers were pulled away to help facilitate the protest.

Across more than 60 pages of internal emails, not a single message expressed concern about missed class time, academic learning, or instructional impact. The focus was entirely on optics, logistics, and narrative control – not education.

The Public Face vs. the Private Reality

DoDEA publicly claimed that the protests were not school-sponsored and that participation was entirely student-driven. But behind the scenes, leadership crafted talking points to guide staff responses and shape public perception.

In one draft message to parents, an administrator wrote:

“While the school did not organize this event, we are proud of our students’ civic awareness and will ensure their voices are safely heard.”

This doublespeak was repeated in internal talking points:

“In case asked, reiterate that DoDEA supports student-led expression as long as it is respectful and non-disruptive.”

Yet the protests were, by definition, disruptive – students missed class, normal instruction was halted, and teachers were reassigned from academic duties to monitor the walkout. Staff did not remain neutral; they supervised, accommodated, and in some cases, encouraged the activism.

Internal communications show that DoDEA leadership didn’t just prepare staff logistically – they crafted the narrative. Talking points were distributed in advance, directing staff how to respond to questions from parents or media. The goal was clear: publicly frame the protests as “student-led civic expression” while concealing how deeply involved the school had been behind the scenes.

In response to the protests, DoDEA spokesperson William Griffin told reporters:

“DoDEA does not support or endorse student walkouts.”

Another DoDEA spokeswoman, Miranda Ferguson, told reporters:

“DoDEA schools do not endorse or support any disruption to student learning or the school day,”

But as the evidence shows, that’s exactly what happened.

Given the degree of planning revealed in just the official emails – despite redactions – it’s reasonable to ask how much more occurred off the record or in the classroom.

Pattern of Institutional Activism?

DoDEA’s role in facilitating the DEI walkouts is undeniable. Staff helped coordinate logistics, provided resources, and shaped messaging – then publicly claimed the protests were entirely student-led.

This isn’t just a lack of transparency. It’s deliberate deceit – and it undermines public trust.

Which raises the larger question: Were these protests an exception – or part of a broader pattern of institutional activism by DoDEA staff and administrators?

In recent months, DoDEA has made headlines for pulling books from libraries, restricting student clubs, and scaling back longstanding cultural observances. Some of those decisions may have originated from higher headquarters. But how many were exaggerated, selectively enforced, or carried out in a way designed to stir controversy and generate headlines?

If DoDEA staff were willing to orchestrate protests under the guise of neutrality, what else might be happening under the banner of “compliance”? What other decisions on curriculum, discipline, or programming are being quietly shaped by internal agendas that run counter to public statements?

And would that same institutional support have been extended if the protests had taken the opposite stance – opposing DEI initiatives instead of defending them? If not, then this wasn’t about civic expression at all. It was about institutional alignment with a specific ideology.

This isn’t just about a few student protests. It’s about trust.

Military families place their children in DoDEA schools with the expectation that education will be delivered free of personal or political agendas. The DoDEA has breached that trust yet again – this time through deliberate deceit, coordinated actions, and material support for ideological activism across multiple DoDEA schools.

Military families deserve a full accounting – not carefully worded denials or silence. The coordination revealed through FOIA is likely just the surface. The documents were heavily redacted and limited to official government emails. Face-to-face conversations, text messages, chats, and unofficial accounts fall outside FOIA’s reach. What’s been exposed are just the records DoDEA couldn’t hide.

Congress and DoD leaders owe military parents real accountability – because when federal school officials orchestrate protests behind the scenes and mislead the public, that’s not education.

That’s exploitation.

** Neither DoDEA Europe nor DoDEA Pacific responded to requests for comment by the time of publication.