A group of Red Wing High School students is planning a walkout on Friday in response to the school district's cancellation of a Black History Month assembly featuring Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.

Amarie Williams, a junior and president of the school's Black Student Union, said she and other students were outraged by the school's decision, which was announced on Wednesday afternoon.

"We're extremely upset," Williams said. "Not only was it at the end of the month, it took away the Black Student Union's opportunity to celebrate Black History Month."

Ellison was set to speak during an event to celebrate historic achievements of Black leaders. The Democratic attorney general has been in the headlines in recent days as he and his office push back against directives from the new administration of President Donald Trump, on topics including immigrant deportation and transgender athletes.

Red Wing Superintendent Bob Jaszczak announced the cancellation in a letter to parents and faculty. He wrote that the decision was due to "concerns over significant disruptions," without further elaboration. The district declined on Thursday to provide further details about the nature of possible disruptions.

"The superintendent is standing by what he sent out on his email," district spokeswoman Anne Robertson said. Ellison's spokesman, Brian Evans, declined to comment.

The student walkout is planned for 9:45 a.m. Friday in front of Red Wing High School at the school's flagpole. Williams said the focus of the walkout will be to honor Black History Month more than it is to focus on the canceled Ellison visit.

Williams said she was not told why the Ellison visit was canceled, but said she heard that a protest was organized by people opposed to his planned appearance.

On Wednesday, Robertson said the district's Black History Month programming this year included hosting a Black Student Union conference with students from other districts, along with other daily lessons and field trips to learn about local Black history figures.

After getting the emailed statement from the superintendent, Red Wing school parent Amber Plank called Jaszczak to convey her frustrations.

She recorded the call, in which Jaszczak declined to tell Plank why the decision was made, but said it was "not easy."

"We fully understand the optics of this are not anything we would like to have happen, and we definitely need to support our students, [and] students of color across the board," he says on the call.

On Red Wing community Facebook pages, commenters voiced a mixture of disappointment and support for the decision to cancel the event.

Plank, whose four children are Black, said she was "appalled and disgusted" and that the district's decision comes off as bowing to public pressure.

"If [the district] planned this but had any thoughts they might fold to the pressure of racist people in this town, they should have never done it," she said.