Shapes created in Illustrator are always filled when when fill is off

[swhite]

I am trying to create game controllers for our 6th graders who have coded their own video games.
For the buttons, we created NOT FILLED shapes (circles, squares) in Illustrator, but when go to to laser cut, they appear filled and they engrave as all black and you can’t see the letters on the buttons.
any ideas?

[swhite]

I think I fixed it. I had to go to Path>outline path.