Ohio student suspended for staying in class during walkouts

AP ^ | March 16, 2018

[Beautiful_Gracious_Skies]

HILLIARD, Ohio – An Ohio high school student says he tried to remain nonpolitical during school walkouts over gun violence and was suspended for a day because he stayed in a classroom instead of joining protests or the alternative, a study hall.

Hilliard senior Jacob Shoemaker says school isn't the place for politics, and he wasn't taking sides Wednesday.

The district says it's responsible for students' safety and they can't be unsupervised. Jacob's citation for not following instructions was shared online by a friend, prompting a flood of messages to his father.

Scott Shoemaker says some people thought his son was suspended for walking out, and angry comments accumulated, including some that mistook Scott for the principal. He says he also got a couple death threats and had to consider switching phone numbers.

[Leaning Right]

> The ‘teachers’ were paid for the day to be IN the classroom. Why were they NOT in the classroom? <

The article doesn’t give many details. But I’m guessing the teachers were just following district orders. Some were probably told to report to the study hall. The rest were probably told to report to the protest site as monitors.

As I noted in an earlier post (#31), I’m a veteran teacher. And I’ve got a story for you. Remember the day the OJ Simpson trial verdict was announced? I was teaching chemistry at the time.

Every teacher in our school was told to quit teaching! We were all told to get out our classroom TV sets, and turn on the news. Watching the verdict come in was supposed to be a “teachable moment”.

Well, that was a damn bad idea for many reasons. I had chemistry material to cover. And the math teacher next door had math material to cover. And our school was racially polarized enough as it was!

But we teachers had no say. We had to follow orders and get our TV’s out. No other real option. (A protesting student gets applauded. A protesting teacher gets fired.)

[rey]

“Why should he be forced to miss his science, math, or whatever classes for the day while the school orchestrates a protest for political purposes?”

No. He shouldn’t be forced to miss class but more importantly, he shouldn’t be forced to engage in something he does not believe in. One may ask, would he be allowed to miss class for something he believed in that was not part of the main stream?

We should also note that over the course of 12 years of education, the average student spends 13,000 in school. Most will graduate functional illiterates. It is obvious that education is not the school’s goal.

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[Ancesthntr]

“Conservatives need to start suing the crap out of the school districts. We have to fight back.”

---

I agree. The Leftists have weaponized the courts (that’s an old trick - weaponizing law enforcement and our intelligence agencies is relatively new in comparison), and it is past time for conservatives (or even those who just want to be left alone) to strike back using the same weapon. Give the Left a taste of its own tactics, and see how they like it. Make THEM afraid of stepping over some line; cost THEM a fortune in legal fees, judgments and aggravation.

[dinodino]

He should sue the school district.

[relictele]

What does this little SOB think school is for? Learning?

[gunsequalfreedom]

Why didn't he just go to the study hall?

It seems pretty clear, to me anyhow. He was making a statement that politics did not belong in school (I happen to think that is a great position and share it).

His statement I believe is that everyone should stay in class, continue their course study and not have the school disrupted by national politics.

He was protesting, I think, the school administrators that took an action he did not agree with so he chose not to participate in their decision.

I've seem much more odd positions to protest about. I'm with that kid but you raise a good point.

[MrBambaLaMamba]

War is coming

[lastchance]

Probably because the study hall was most likely code for “See what crap you can get away with while the monitor ignores your unacceptable behavior.O It sure as heck no longer means “Taking time to study.”

You can also be sure the “lack of supervision” was BS, because we know it is not possible to properly supervise those students who were protesting.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

More child abuse. That being said, I would have picked the study hall if I were him. There is merit to the supervision argument in this case.

[Ted Grant]

I’d sue them, win or lose. Give them a leagle headache, depositions, evidence, etc.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

☑

[WKUHilltopper]

“Why are we paying for it? To create a class of worker drones?”

To train compliance and submission to the state.

[P-Marlowe]

Because he was in class.

[I want the USA back]

We cling to the illusion of freedom. It’s gone. The government, in schools, has imposed dictorial restrictions on liberty. The government is in charge there.

Freedom is gone. Fooling oneself with sweet songs of liberty doesn’t change the reality.

The government is violating the Constitution.

[oldbill]

“If a district lets a kid stay unsupervised, that district opens itself up to all sorts of lawsuits. Kids left alone can and do get into trouble.”

Wrong.
That kid went to school on a mandated school day, to learn. He complied with his obligation. Had he not, he could have been arrested for truancy. Note that he was not offered a day off at home, but obligated to be at the school. He was not obligated to take part in a political rally off the school grounds.

If the designated supervisors were deliberately absent, especially for political reasons, it is the absent supervisory person who has failed their duty, not the student.

Schools get their state and federal monies for the number of school days. (Which is why they have to make up snow days in June, to get the money.) If these schools were closed, they should have that money denied or forced to have a makeup day in June.

[P-Marlowe]

Why did the teacher leave the classroom?

I thought this was supposed to be a student led impromptu protest.

Instead it was apparently a government sponsored political rally.

[IYAS9YAS]

“Study hall” = detention for infraction

Back in my day, detention was during lunch or after school and was for an infraction. Study hall was for when we had a class period with no actual class to go to (we were required to be in school, on school grounds during this time, so we had to go somewhere). In my case, I had dropped a class, didn't need to take another class to make up for it, but had to be on campus and accounted for during the class period. So, I went to study hall.

[TribalPrincess2U]

Maybe that was the way he was protesting the protesting.

[DannyTN]

I know, that’s the stupid thing, unless the study hall was considered a counter protest and he was trying to remain non-political.