"We Will Not Be Silent," read one sign.
"Our Education Is Not a Threat," read another.
Both messages were lofted by high school students, part of a group of roughly 100 who had walked out of their high school in Germany this month to protest books being banned and class courses being scrapped.
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At a public school, the protest might have led to a detention and maybe some revoked after-school privileges. But on a military base, the students were putting more on the line. The same officials in charge of their Department of Defense-run school also had authority over their parents' careers and status in the military.
"I knew my risk, but I was comfortable making the decision to do it because of what I felt was right," said one of the students, a junior who spoke to Military.com on condition of anonymity for fear of punishment -- such as losing their family's Status of Forces Agreement sponsorship.
The students' daily lives, as well as those of their families, are directly and deeply shaped by Pentagon orders and the U.S. government's funding.
Since President Donald Trump took office again in January, a flurry of White House dictums have caused widespread confusion at military bases stateside and abroad, affecting everything from books in the library and classroom lessons to potential staffing at child day care centers and hiring freezes for jobs that military spouses rely on to supplement their service members' income.
Parents say those changes, often driven by political decisions in Washington, are harming their family lives and are ultimately dangerous to military readiness and even future recruitment of their children, who historically make up one of the most fertile grounds for the services to reap.
Military.com spoke to more than seven parents and students about the sudden changes for military families. Those who requested anonymity due to concern about potential retribution against them or their family members were granted it by the publication.
"Every day, there's always something new that happens, and it's just surprising," the junior said. "But I know there's nothing I can physically do about my situation, except for when I'm able to vote at the midterm. Overall, there's just kind of just anxiousness if we're even going to be able to stay here, or if my friend's parents are getting fired and they have to leave."
Walkouts have happened at Defense Department schools in Japan, South Korea and Germany.
While much of the attention on the policy shifts has focused on purging of websites and pushing some out of either military service or public service, the broader funding cuts are gutting even basic childhood rights of passage like participating in sports.
A March 12 memo shared with parents of students at the junior's Department of Defense Education Activity, or DoDEA, school announced the cancellation of athletic matches, including a baseball game the junior was slated to play.
"We regret to inform you that all athletic events scheduled for this weekend have been postponed, and there will be an attempt to reschedule once funding and travel become available," the letter, reviewed by Military.com, said.
The letter said travel games were canceled because they were not deemed essential under Trump's executive order seeking to implement Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, spending cuts.
"Since they've frozen all nonessential hiring, including substitutes and extra aids, they're now basically begging parents to come help."
Lucy Meadema Hill, a military spouse based in Italy
Other school activities were also squeezed. Students on a culinary career track at their school weren't able to practice cooking because of new $1 credit card limits for staff, preventing the school from buying ingredients and forcing kids to ask their parents to donate food.
"The kids are just in constant limbo," one mother of a DoDEA high school student said. She summarized the attitude of officials as "Let's just cut everything without any thought of consequences and get a bunch of pushback."
Who Is Watching the Kids?
Amid announced hiring freezes and resignations, some bases began preparing military families for potential issues with child care.
Hill Air Force Base in Utah sent out a message telling spouses that one of the two child development centers, or CDCs, on the installation might have to close due to possible staffing shortages and that certain defense civilian families, including Gold Star spouses, may not be able to get their children into the day care center, Military.com reported earlier this month.
Kendahl Johnson, a spokesman for Hill Air Force Base, told Military.com in a statement that the base decided to temporarily close one of the CDC facilities, saying that 31 families had their children disenrolled on Friday after being notified a week prior.
"CDCs traditionally face high turnover, and several recent departures in conjunction with the hiring freeze have reduced the number of supervisors and trainers available," Johnson said in an email statement. "Maintaining two open CDCs at current personnel levels would pose an unacceptable risk to the 200 children who remain in care at Hill AFB."
In a town hall at Joint Base Lewis-McChord last week, Col. Kent Park, the base commander, described a "worst-case scenario" where they'd "have to give notices to families" alerting them "we can no longer have your children at our CDC."
The spokesperson for the Department of Defense's personnel and readiness staff did not have figures on how many CDC employees at bases across the globe were affected by probationary status terminations or who had accepted early resignations and buyouts as the Pentagon aims to cut anywhere from 50,000 to 60,000 civilian jobs -- many of them occupied by veterans or military spouses.
"Since they've frozen all nonessential hiring, including substitutes and extra aids, they're now basically begging parents to come help," said Lucy Meadema Hill, a military spouse based in Italy. "Sure, parents are happy to help, but it's also not the parents' job to go supervise recess. It's not the parents' job to go help at the CDC. That's why these things exist. These are services that we should have available, but all of a sudden we don't."
CDCs have already faced years of staffing shortages and, as Military.com reported in an investigation last year, have grappled with cases of abuse and poor oversight.
Ongoing litigation has halted the Trump administration's widespread firings of federal probationary civilian employees. Additionally, on March 18, a new memo was released detailing positions that would be considered exempt from hiring freezes. Among those were "Child and Youth Programs staff," as well as "Instructors or facility support staff at DoD Schools or Child Care Centers."
But the inconsistency in day care, as well as the shifting rules on remote government jobs that have been a lifeline for military spouses, have left families uncertain and worried.
"It's not a matter of child care; it's 12 hours of child care or more, because you are the solo parent and you can't rely on your service member spouse to be able to do pickups and drop-offs and make dinner," said Emmalee Gruesen, Navy spouse and military family advocate. "They seem to not realize that the alternative is not that these people are going to come into the office and report to an office, the alternative is that they're going to quit."
Learning on Their Own
The Trump administration and Pentagon's actions gutting content tied to recognition of diversity -- largely understood to mean anything celebrating the individuality of women, those from minority groups and members of the LGBTQ+ community -- has made it harder for students to learn required material in DoDEA schools.
Advanced Placement, or AP, classes are offered to students at base schools as a way for them to get college credit and improve their chances for admission to competitive schools. One such class offered is AP Psychology, but a February memo from the DoDEA cut a book chapter as well as a learning module related to gender and sex from the course, saying the material doesn't comply with Trump's executive orders.
"Educators are expected to implement this directive immediately," the memo detailed. "Principals must ensure that educators are aware of and comply with this instruction."
But DoDEA students are still expected to know the material for the national AP exam, a test they must take in order to get credit for their year of work in the course. Parents and students told Military.com that teachers are making kids learn that material on their own time.
"They're not allowed to teach that," one military spouse stationed in Japan told Military.com. "[It] puts them in a position to do worse than maybe some counterparts and other school districts where it's not banned."
Will Griffin, a spokesperson for DoDEA schools told Military.com the school system was evaluating the course as an offering for next school year.
"Enrolled students will continue to have access to course resources through College Board and can take the AP Psychology exam as scheduled," Griffin said. "We are continuing to work with College Board concerning scheduling AP Psychology as a course offering for the 2025-2026 school year."
There's also been widespread culling of books in DoDEA school libraries. A list obtained by Military.com from a school in Japan listed 37 titles flagged for "gender ideology," which included a wide range of titles such as actor Julianne Moore's book "Freckleface Strawberry: Best Friends Forever" about a girl who dislikes her freckles but accepts them, as well as a biographies about pioneering astronaut Sally Ride and the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
"I've talked to teachers, they're terrified, and there is no clear guidance from administrators."
Some of those titles, like Moore's book and a Ginsburg biography, are back on the shelves, Griffin said.
One email from Wiesbaden Middle School in Germany, shared with Military.com, detailed that a librarian was going through the shelves to see which books would comply or not with Trump's executive orders. Parents believe that many teachers and administrators are acting out of fear due, in large part, to unclear parameters of what qualifies as unacceptable material.
"I've talked to teachers, they're terrified, and there is no clear guidance from administrators," the spouse from Japan told Military.com. "It probably was an overreaction, but out of fear."
The junior year student and his parent at a DoDEA high school in Germany told Military.com that previously planned readings of "Twelve Angry Men" -- a social drama about a jury -- and "Fences" -- which examines race relations in the 1950s -- were no longer being used for English class amid fears they could be in violation of Trump's executive orders.
Griffin said the DoDEA was not aware of any restrictions placed on those books.
Students who participated in walkouts in Japan carried signs that read "Only Cowards Remove [And] Censor Books" and "Banning Books and History Is Not Freedom."
A lot of the decisions being made, from books to cultural celebrations, are at the installation level and come from a place of confusion and unclear guidance, parents and spouses told Military.com.
"The girls on this base, and some of my daughter's trans and queer friends, are very, very scared right now," said the spouse stationed in Japan. "You get the sense walking through the schools that there's just, like, a heaviness and an uncertainty, and confusion. … I see it with my kids. It's impacting them."
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