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Schools are punishing students who walked out to protest gun violence

Students who participated in a natiowide walkout have been suspended, given detentions, and even face corporal punishment.

Students across the country are being punished for taking part in the nationwide student walkout, meant to protest gun violence and honor the 17 students and staff killed in last month's shooting in Parkland, Florida. (CREDIT: Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images)
Students across the country are being punished for taking part in the nationwide student walkout, meant to protest gun violence and honor the 17 students and staff killed in last month's shooting in Parkland, Florida. (CREDIT: Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images)

Teenagers across the country sent a clear message to their lawmakers on Wednesday by taking part in a 17-minute walkout to protest gun violence, in honor of the 17 students and staff who died in the February shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. An estimated 2,500 schools and tens of thousands of students took part.

Now that the immediate media attention on the walkout has died down, students have found themselves faced with a variety of punishments for having the courage to express their political views. On Friday, 150 students at Park Hill High School in Kansas were told that they needed to serve detention or attend an administrative conference for their walkout. At Pennridge High School near Philadelphia, more than 200 students were given weekend detentions for taking part in the walkout.

“Just to be clear, no student will be disciplined because they expressed any particular viewpoint or opinion,” Superintendent Jacqueline Rattigan said. “Rather, the disciplinary consequence will be given for willfully breaking a school rule about leaving the building without permission.”

Meanwhile, in Brandywine Heights High School near Allentown, Pennsylvania, 21 students were suspended for taking part in the walkout. The school superintendent had said that they could attend a symposium on school violence, but were not allowed to walk out like their peers across the country.

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The worst punishment was reserved for three teenagers at Greenbier Public School in central Arkansas, who were allegedly “smacked” for taking part in the protest. “My kid and two other students walked out of their rural, very conservative public school for 17 minutes today,” Jerusalem Greer, a mother of one of the students, wrote on Twitter. “They were given two punishment options. They chose corporal punishment. This generation is not playing around.”

According to Greenbier Public School’s policy book, students being given corporal punishment should be “given an explanation of the reasons for the punishment and be given an opportunity to refute the charges, administered privately — i.e. out of sight and hearing of other students.” The handbook adds that the school board “authorizes the use of this corporal punishment to be administered…by the Superintendent or his/her designated staff members who are required to have a state-issued license.”

Meanwhile, as students were being given suspensions, detentions and corporal punishments for their political beliefs this week, the NRA’s response was to mock them online with slogans and memes. One tweet from the NRA’s official account, posted the day of the walkout, read “I’ll control my own guns, thank you.” The tweet featured a photo of an AR-15 — the same type of weapon used in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting — emblazoned with an American flag sticker.