A Texas school district is warning students that they face suspension from school if they walk out to join nationwide gun control protests this week. “We are here for an education and not a political protest,” is the message from Needville ISD Superintendent Curtis Rhodes.
Students in Florida, where 17 students and faculty were gunned down at a Parkland high school, are organizing rallies to protest Florida lawmakers’ decision not to ban assault weapons in the Sunshine state.
Students in other states including Texas, Maryland, and New York have organized their own walk out protests.
But the school district in Needville, TX, which is located about 60 miles southwest of Houston, believes the students are safer in the schools and not on the streets.
Rhodes reminded students of school policies in a Facebook post on Tuesday:
Please be advised that the Needville ISD will not allow a student demonstration during school hours for any type of protest or awareness!! Should students choose to do so, they will be suspended from school for 3 days and face all the consequences that come along with an out of school suspension.
Life is all about choices and every choice has a consequence whether it be positive or negative. We will discipline no matter if it is one, fifty, or five hundred students involved. All will be suspended for 3 days and parent notes will not alleviate the discipline.
A school is a place to learn and grow educationally, emotionally and morally. A disruption of the school will not be tolerated.
Respect yourself, your fellow students and the Needville Independent School District and please understand that we are here for an education and not a political protest.
Curtis Rhodes
Superintendent of Schools
Photo by Zach Gibson/Getty Images
Bring your note in advance and then go to your protest. If students are safer in schools than the streets then why are you suspending them for 3 days? Where do you think they will be for that 3 days.
Our children shouldn’t have to run from bullets. Voting to not ban AR-15s in the State of Florida is an example of lazy legislation and America has to change. Florida lawmakers refuse to debate assault rifles but say porn is dangerous. Really? If you’re not with us, you’re against us. School aged children deserve safer schools and America needs better gun control and mental health treatment programs.
Im a lil torn on this….If Im at work and my teen is wandering the streets….thats not a good thing
That suspension will actually work in their benefit on college applications.
Are schools there to baby-sit children or are they there to prepare kids for the world ahead of them? Participating in a protest of this sort is very much needed and personally the Superintendent is a bully.
Now you should be the Superintendent of that school.
I’d rather be suspended than shot
This is a learning experience. Hopefully those schools will catch holy hell if they suspend anyone. These kids voiced a concern, organized, and participated in a protest, that well may political, so chalk it under political science and keep it moving. Pricks
Simple…those who wanna protest Just don’t show up for school that day&do it somewhere else…how is he gonna tell the difference
Have all parents write a note saying their student will be leaving early due to illness.. they are sick of school shootings.. they can’t suspend on a note from parents informing of absence..lawsuit much..
I do NOT like the language in this notice to the students. In Particular the part stating
*”We will discipline no matter if it is one, fifty, or five hundred students involved. All will be suspended for 3 days and parent notes will not alleviate the discipline.”*
American schools have become totalitarian dictatorships – institutionalized housing camps. Students sure are NOT learning anything, we test the lowest in the world when its comes to educational standards. To make matters worse children are being machine gunned down in cold blood.
One thing they ARE getting is a good sex education, on any given day teachers male and lately female are sending nudes, sexting, and having drunken sleep over sex parties with students
HOW on earth did ALL OF THIS happen to OUR public school system-are we not the richest, most powerful nation in the world, the global police- the shinning example for ALL nations of what good democracy and the will of the people look like. – WELL?
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As they should! These kids look for any reason to skip class. Protest on a Saturday or Sunday or after school.
Typical. Texas.
These kids! SMDH! YOU SEE WHERE IT’S GETTING THEM! EARLY GRAVES! ADULTS NEED TO STEP UP AND GET A HANDLE ON THERE HOUSEHOLD!
And whose gonna protect them if one of there fellow classmates or some idiot decide to bust off while they are all gathered!
Sort of OT: https://nypost.com/2018/02/21/photo-shows-accused-florida-gunman-his-brother-holding-moms-ashes/
These kids were totally screwed up mentally. The brother has been committed — WTF? They were lucky to have been adopted….this is a shame all around.
It’s Texas you can’t speak out against the NRA in any shape or form.
Plenty of folks live hard lives and don’t try to massacre people who had nothing to do with their misfortunes. If a person is in that much pain and wish to end a life, it should be their own. Precedent needs to start with the harshest punishments for mass murderers.
I think a court appointed executor should watch the money…The folks that took him in were pretty shady during their interview. They probably took them in for the money! After the late mother’s bills are paid then all dollars should be put in a trust for them. I would like to know what was going on in this temporary household. Also they knew the young man had several guns but thought they were locked up??!
Death and money are two BIG evils…smdh. Praying for everybody down there…this is a shame!
suspended that’s a day off. I would b the 1st out the door
Thank you I would be like suspended me that’s a day off
It’s actually 3 days off.
Texas uses whitesplained history books, so they won’t be missing much in that area.
I hope the entire school doesn’t show up. Three days off sounds mighty nice to me…
In terms of most educational metrics, the USA does test amazingly low for the industrialized world. Looking at the president, it doesn’t instill much confidence to do better.
But sex education or something must be good/helping, because teen birthrates are the lowest ever. Unfortunately, sexting and abuse by teachers is not limited to the USA.
If I was one of them parents, I would rent a damn bus & pick up & take EVERY student that wanted to go!!! This isn’t some trivial protest, these kids are standing up for THEIR safety since the POLITICIANS WON’T DO IT!!!! Kudos to every kid that participated in these PEACEFUL PROTEST!!! If we as parents don’t stand behind them who will!! Plus the school has to have a specific number of students at school, so I would love to see 500 students expelled for 3 days!
Exactly!!!! They are doing this peacefully! I could see if they were just being rowdy & out of control, but they are NOT.
If you can’t come together to SAVE your childeren then you can’t come together for anything. These politician need to fear these kids, these kids will be turning 18, they will go to the polls and they will remember hiding and being scared for thier lives. People will be voted out of office.
Sounds like intimidation to me…if the parents are open to it then they can call the school and get the absence excused
they should be suspended..sit yo tail down and learn something. Protest on the weekend…They treat these kids like adults and that’s the problem.
exactly!.
its a shame what’s happening to our youth
Children have the right to protest too! I wonder how he and others telling these kids to sit down would feel if it was their child that was shot at while at school. I’d rather my daughter stand up for something rather than sit down and stay silent. #childrenmatter
Yep… Schools get money per student so I say call their bluff. If they don’t mind losing an three extra days worth of funding that’s on them. You’d think this school would support young people standing up and demanding more from their elected officials.
Exactly!!! I tell ya, I’m so proud of them for standing up for what is right!!! They want to feel safe while in school & I don’t blame them! Who can concentrate on schoolwork when you don’t know if someone is going come in blasting on them!!! #fireallpoliticiansandstartover
Parents will decide what their kids do, not some BS post from an institution that can’t keep them safe. My child would darn sure be protesting.
Said the person who is not their parents. Weird