Auburn mother Erika Franklin, whose video of her pulling her seventh-grade daughter from Olympic Middle School went viral over the weekend, says she never set out to become a political lightning rod — she was simply following her normal pickup routine when she drove into what she describes as a chaotic, unsafe scene involving a student walkout to protests of federal immigration enforcement.
Speaking on the Ari Hoffman Show on Talk Radio 570 KVI, Franklin said what she witnessed outside the school, and what she experienced trying to get inside, crossed a line for a parent expecting a controlled, safe environment.
WATCH: Hero Mom Erika Franklin joins the show to discuss yanking her 7th-grade daughter from Olympic Middle School in Auburn, WA, after students were allowed to walk out of class and disrupt traffic to protest ICE pic.twitter.com/sFt7jwkZEN
— Ari Hoffman (@thehoffather) February 2, 2026
“It was just a normal day… until I went to pick my kid up”
Franklin told Hoffman the moment happened without warning. She wasn’t responding to rumors or a tip, she was doing what she does every day.
“It’s just my daily routine,” she said, explaining she typically avoids the front because “it is actually dangerous after school” due to students not crossing properly. She parks in back, she said, because she has a handicap placard and it’s easier for her daughter to come out, but on Friday as she approached the school, she said she could see hundreds of students gathered out front before turning toward her usual route.
“I see all of this as I’m just going to pick her up,” Franklin said. “It was just a normal day for me until I went to pick my kid up from school.”
She described her first interaction as happening before she even began recording.
“I actually pulled up by the crosswalk there and said, ‘Hey, is everything okay? What’s going on?’” Franklin recalled. She says she got a look that communicated: “it’s a protest.”
WATCH: Hero Mom pulls her 7th-grade daughter from Olympic Middle School in Auburn, WA, after students were allowed & encouraged to protest ICE pic.twitter.com/StpAwclSmS
— Ari Hoffman (@thehoffather) February 1, 2026
Then came the question that spiked her panic: “I went, ‘Are all the kids out here? Is my kid out here?’ And he goes, ‘I don’t know.’ I said, ‘This is not okay.’”
Franklin said she turned around, parked in front, and started filming.
Teachers in vests, parents in the crowd: “That’s helping to me”
Hoffman asked if the school staff was involved. Franklin told KVI, “The teachers were out there. There were parents out there… most of the teachers that I recognized, I recognized because they had vests on, like yellow and blue, and they were kind of like keeping the crowd at bay and helping traffic.”
To Franklin, that amounted to participation.
“So, yeah, that’s helping — that’s helping to me,” she said.
When Hoffman asked whether the district had warned families, Franklin said she had no advance notice and drove into it unexpectedly. When asked what she would say to the district claiming staff wasn’t involved, she didn’t mince words:
“Staff was involved, and that’s how I’m gonna comment on that,” Franklin said. “Anyone with a clear mind and a rational mind can see it.”
“The walkway… was completely blocked”
Franklin also described a detail that didn’t come through clearly in the viral clip: she says she couldn’t even access the entrance normally.
“The walkway to the school was completely blocked, and I had to walk through the mud and grass, so there was no pathway to the front door,” she said. “I wanna make that clear.”
“They pinpointed me and started booing me”
Franklin told the radio audience she believes students singled her out as she approached the campus, and she insists she did nothing to provoke it.
“A couple of them said, ‘Hey, boo,’” she said. “And they all turned and pointed and booed.”
She also said she heard politically charged chants:
“There were… kids… screaming ‘f Trump’ type of thing,” Franklin said.
As the crowd reacted, Franklin said she felt targeted simply for arriving and trying to get inside.
“They all noticed me and pinpointed me and started booing me,” she said. “I don’t know… I didn’t do anything to trigger that.”
“My heart immediately went from zero to a million”
In the viral video, Franklin is visibly out of breath. On the show, she said it wasn’t from rushing — it was from fear and adrenaline as staff appeared unsure where her child was.
“My heart immediately went from zero to a million,” she said. “If you notice, I’m out of breath, and it’s not from moving too fast, it’s from trying to keep my composure.”
Franklin says she believed her daughter was still in class — but she was still shaken by what she saw as a lack of immediate certainty.
“I knew in my heart where my daughter was,” she said. “She was in class… She’s a good kid. I knew she was in class.”
“This was the last straw”
Franklin told Hoffman the walkout wasn’t just an isolated incident — she said she’d already been considering a different schooling environment.
“I have been wanting to get my daughter in a safer educational environment for a very long time,” she said. “I trusted Olympic… This is only our second year here. This was the last straw.”
She said she has watched problems “continue to escalate” and refused to accept excuses.
“That’s it for me,” Franklin said. “No excuses… I don’t care what anyone has to say when it comes down to excusing this.”
“The kids that stayed in class are the real heroes”
While Hoffman repeatedly labeled Franklin a “hero mom,” Franklin redirected the praise to students who did not join the walkout.
“The main thing I wanna emphasize is that the children that stayed in class are the real heroes,” she said. “They deserve to go viral.”
“All I see is these kids out here marching, misbehaving, acting fools,” she continued. “And the kids that stayed in class have zero recognition… Let’s lift these kids up… They’re the heroes, they’re the champions and MVPs.”
Franklin closed with a call for parents and community members to speak up — even if it’s uncomfortable.
“If we want change… ‘Hi, I’m Erica. I have a voice, and I’m scared to have one now, but… let’s do it. Let’s go. Let’s save these kids.’”
And she ended the interview on a personal note: “God bless the children, and God bless my country.”
