Texas superintendent vows to suspend students who walk out to protest guns

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A school superintendent near Houston said his district plans to suspend any student who takes part in classroom walkouts as a form of protest over gun violence after last week's school massacre in Florida.

"Needville ISD will not allow a student demonstration during school hours for any type of protest or awareness," Superintendent Curtis Rhodes, of Needville, Texas, wrote in a now-deleted Facebook post, threatening a three-day 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."

Rhodes went on to say that students participating in “political protest” would be subject to a three-day suspension and that “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,” he said. “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.”

High school students across the country have been walking out of classes in an effort to stand in solidarity with survivors of last week’s mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where a former student allegedly shot and killed 17 students and teachers.

Walkouts have been reported in various states, including Florida, Colorado, Minnesota and Illinois, where some school administrators said they were instructed to allow students to walk out peacefully, while others, like those in the eastern Texas city of Needville, said they had a zero tolerance policy toward such demonstrations.

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