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