Maine: SAD 13 superintendent warns students, staff not to participate in gun protest

[ffr]

Virginia Rebar said students will be subject to disciplinary action if they take part in the national gun violence protest on March 14.

Students and staff in School Administrative District 13 have been warned by administrators that participation in a March 14 national walkout to protest gun violence will result in disciplinary action.

Superintendent Virginia Rebar, who oversees schools in Moscow and Bingham, posted a letter to the district’s website advising students who might decide to take part in the event that they will be marked as “absent without permission” and “will be subject to normal disciplinary procedures.”
<snip>

“Students and staff do not have a First Amendment right to disrupt or interrupt the school day for political advocacy,” she added. - Central Maine

[Freedomofspeech]

1. I hope they do it anyway.

[msongs]

2. a note from a parent should be sufficient nt

[Ms. Toad]

6. Probably not.

I fought that battle with my school during the Vietnam war, with my parents' support. The absence was still unexcused.

They can't punish you more for an absence based on exercising your right to free speech, or punish only absences for free-speech activities while turning a blind eye to identical conduct for non free-speech related reasons.

But in broad terms they have the right to impose rules on conduct even when it incidentally impinges on speech - as long as the rules are not directed at suppressing speech. So if the punishment they are imposing is identical to the punishment they routinely impose for other unexcused absences, they are probably in the clear.

[TheCowsCameHome]

3. she "...oversees school in Moscow..."

How ironic.

[Liberal Jesus Freak]

4. I dont understand.

The second amendment is sacred but the first amendment is subject to local school boards? smh

[Ms. Toad]

10. No. The school's attendance policy is subject to the local school board.

As long as they consistently treat unexcused absences the same way, they are probably in the clear.

(That doesn't mean the kids shouldn't walk out - but it does mean they need to be prepared to accept the punishment that comes with engaging in civil disobedience - as I did twice during my junior/high school career.)

[Liberal Jesus Freak]

16. Thank you Ms. Toad.

You always bring a voice of reason to the discussion

[bobbieinok]

5. Isn't there a SCOTUS decision from Vietnam era that contradicts her claim?

I think a student in IA was disciplined for 'disrupting the school day.' It was not a demonstration. I think he had an anti-war slogan on a t-shirt. So maybe demostrations not covered by court decision, but rationale for discipline would be??

[Ms. Toad]

7. Black armband,

and not the same.

The black armbands are pure, non-disruptive, speech.

Speech that, by its nature, removes kids from the classroom disrupts the educational process.

It's not the demonstration that is being punished, but being absent from school without one of the permitted reasons for the absence. The school has the right to set its attendance policy - as long as it treats all non-permitted absences the same. (In other words, if it imposes the same punishment on a kid who walks out of class to go to the local Dairy Queen during school hours as it does the kid who walks out of class to protest during school hours they are probably in the clear.)

[X_Digger]

9. Tinker v Des Moines is the one you're thinking of, and no.. ahh, Ms. Toad got there first. n/t

[Ms. Toad]

11. The're family friends,

and i wore a black armband the day the decision came out.

[X_Digger]

20. ..

[X_Digger]

8. Civil obedience has consequences. Why are some surprised?

Who seems to think that protest should be without consequence?

[blake2012]

12. Small price to pay.

For standing up on something this important.

[moriah]

13. It's okay, they can just go to BU (edit: or MIT, also on record)

Who already said they'd not hold any such a disciplinary action against students.

Probably no other university would, either.

[marylandblue]

14. I was curious about what the penalty is, and it seems there may be none

I could not find the attendance policy for that particular school district, but I did find one for another district in Maine, and it seems there are no real consequences unless you miss more than 10 days in a school year, and even then it's just that you have to sign an "attendance contract." I looked at a few other districts around the country, and it seems they are all like that, just varying in the number of days that generate a consequence


https://www.mpa.cc/images/Truancy/msad%2027%20new%20attendance%20policy.pdf

So whatever, kids. Don't miss school unless you have a really good reason.

[ffr]

15. The ACLU expresses it this way

Link to tweet

[LeftInTX]

19. An unexcused absence is the penalty

It goes on your report card. You could get a zero for the day, but usually most students are allowed to make up work. Sometimes there is a maximum grade allowed for make up work.


When I was in school, they ALWAYS contacted my parents. That was the worst part of it for me. I would get grounded. Of course, I wasn't protesting guns in school....I was skipping class.

[ProudLib72]

17. Rebar reinforcing the crumbling conservative concrete with vindictiveness

Dear Virginia Rebar, please stick a rebar up your virginia!

[ffr]

18. +1 The era of conservatives and their corrupt deceitful ways is coming to and end.

The 18 y.o. liberal generation will be the force for good and change for decades to come.