RICHMOND, Va. (AP)
- As schools around the country brace for student walkouts following the
deadly shooting in Parkland, Florida, principals and superintendents are
scrambling to perform a delicate balancing act: How to let thousands of
students exercise their First Amendment rights while not disrupting school
and not pulling administrators into the raging debate over gun control.
Some have taken a
hard line, promising to suspend students who walk out, while others are
using a softer approach, working with students to set up places on campus
where they can remember the victims of the Florida shooting and express
their views about school safety and gun control.
Since the Feb. 14
shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, demonstrations have sprung
up on school campuses around the country. But the first large-scale,
coordinated national demonstration is planned for Wednesday when organizers
of the Women’s March have called for a 17-minute walkout, one minute for
each of the 17 students and staff members killed in Florida.
National
demonstrations are also planned for March 24, with a march on Washington,
D.C.; and on April 20, the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School
massacre in Colorado.
No matter how
schools decide to deal with the demonstrations, students have been reassured
by Harvard, Yale, MIT, the University of Connecticut, UCLA and dozens of
other colleges and universities that their participation won’t affect their
chances of getting admitted.
But for
middle-school and high-school administrators, figuring out how to allow the
demonstrations during school hours has proven challenging. In some cases, it
hasn’t gone smoothly.
In Needville,
Texas, near Houston, Superintendent Curtis Rhodes was castigated on social
media after he warned that students who leave class would be suspended for
three days, even if they get parental permission.
“SHAME, SHAME,
SHAME ON YOU,” wrote one woman.
In Garretson, South
Dakota, administrators canceled a student walkout planned for April 20 after
a Facebook posting about the plan drew more than 300 negative comments from
adults.
And in Arizona,
dozens of students at Ingleside Middle School, near Phoenix, were given
one-day suspensions after they left campus on Feb. 27.
Layla Defibaugh, an
eighth-grade student at Ingleside, said she wanted to participate in the
walkout, but didn’t because of the threatened suspensions. She does plan to
join the Wednesday walkout, even it means getting suspended.
“It’s important for
me to speak my mind on this topic,” she said. “At the end of the day, they
shouldn’t be able to punish us for exercising our First Amendment rights.”
AASA, The School
Superintendents Association, has fielded dozens of calls and emails from
school administrators asking for advice, while the American Civil Liberties
Union has received hundreds of inquiries from students about what their
rights are and if they can be disciplined for participating in the protests.
The answer depends
on each school’s code of conduct and disciplinary policies. Generally, the
ACLU has been advising students that because they are required to go to
school by law, administrators can discipline them for unexcused absences.
But the ACLU also told students in an online training video that
administrators can’t punish them more harshly because of the political
nature of their demonstrations.
The superintendents
association - which is supporting the April 20 walkout- has drafted a list
of suggestions for school administrators, including holding a teach-in, a
school-led walkout to a spot on campus, or a session on bullying.
“There are ways to
engage and harness the students in civic engagement without compromising
policies in place on attendance, participation and student safety,” said
Noelle Ellerson Ng, associate director for policy and advocacy.
Some schools have
embraced the walkouts.
In Mooresville,
Indiana, administrators met with 10 high-school student leaders to work out
a plan. Mooresville High School Principal Brian Disney said the students
plan to use the school’s public address system to read short statements
about mental illness, the importance of kindness and standing up against all
school violence before inviting all students to gather in a school hallway
for 17 minutes of silence.
In Anne Arundel
County, Maryland, administrators are still talking with students about how
they can participate without violating school rules.
“I think we all
realize that for folks who are teenagers right now, this could well be a
defining moment in their lives. We want to very much encourage and empower
student voices. That said, it has to be done in ways that are safe and
appropriate,” said spokesman Bob Mosier.
Some schools are
taking a middle ground, neither encouraging nor discouraging students from
participating. In Henrico County, Virginia, near Richmond, administrators
sent an email to parents saying they are not sanctioning the Wednesday
walkout, but feel obligated to manage the event because of its heavy
promotion on social media. Middle-school principals asked parents to sign a
Google document stating whether they give their children permission to
participate. Schools plan to provide campus locations for the walkout.
In Somerville,
Massachusetts, students say they won’t stop after a single walkout. They’ve
started a weekly movement they hope will keep public attention focused on
school safety and put pressure on lawmakers to pass stricter gun control
laws. The walkouts will be held every Wednesday, said Anika Nayak, 16, a
student organizer.
“We’re really just
fed up with the lack of action that’s been taken in our country,” Nayak
said.
“We don’t think
enough people are listening.”