The demonstration started in the lunch room. 25 students gathered when someone incited the protesters to regroup by the flagpole in front of the building. The principal went outside and gave the students a choice. They were allowed to come inside without being tardy or call their parents to be taken home. Approx 15 (number uncertain) opted for a vacation day. Later in the afternoon three more kids made a protest attempt and were suspended.
The post also includes a revealing look at how the media make decisions on what parts of a story to cover, and offers some thoughtful commentary concerning both journalism and education.
He makes good points, but let's think about it a minute. Certainly you should politely and nicely try to go through authorized channels first, but I don't think you should plan to see results because most of the time they just ignore everything you say and go on to do whatever they want. After all, you can't affect their paycheck. If elected to their post, unless most of the town is in the office with you they aren't going to lost their job and if the rest of the town does show up delaying tactics till the whole thing fades from the public's mind has been proven many times to work very well. In the meantime, the kids who protested have learned that there is a price to be paid (unless, of course, your parents are either wealthy or have political clout). Whether the kids ever protest anything again or not, that's actually a very useful lesson in life.
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