Arizona high schoolers spend Election Day protesting Donald Trump, Sheriff Joe Arpaio

(Image credit: ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)

Hundreds of high school students in Phoenix staged a walk-out Tuesday, protesting against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Arpaio was first elected in 1992, and is running for a seventh term. He's a controversial figure known for harsh immigration enforcement tactics, and in December will stand trial for criminal contempt after allegedly ignoring a judge's order to stop racially profiling Latinos. Some pre-election polls show Arpaio's opponent, Democrat Paul Penzone, up by 15 points.

Shortly after noon, students from Maryvale and North high schools hit the streets, carrying signs and balloons with anti-Arpaio messages and wearing stickers with a red line going through Arpaio's name. "He's been in office for 23 years and we need to get him out, because a lot of families have been impacted by him," one student said. "Sometimes we need to break the rules to be heard, am I right?"

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.