Students have a right to protest in schools, so long as the protest doesn't cause a distraction to the educational process. This is what the courts have ruled repeatedly, and challenges to disciplinary actions by schools over protests and free speech tend to hinge on whether something is a distraction or not.
Interestingly, though, while students get hammered over messages on t-shirts or even offhand comments, the massive walkouts after Parkland didn't seem to raise any administration's eyebrows.
And I'm sure it won't this time, either.
Savannah Arts Academy’s Student Demand Action organization held a walkout Friday to speak out against gun violence in schools and as a response to the tragic school shooting in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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“We are protesting legislation inaction in response to school shootings and gun violence epidemic in our country. We really feel that our lawmakers are not doing enough in response to these horrible tragedies that continue to occur over and over again,” said Zoe Wagner, the president of Student Demand Action at Savannah Arts.
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WTOC also spoke with Aden Lee, who is a founding member of Students Demand action, at Savannah Arts. He said that there are many different solutions to fix the problem.
“We want those commonsense gun laws, those assault rifle bans, just ways to keep guns out of our schools, to keep us safe so that we don’t have to worry about our safety when we are learning,” said Lee.
The walkout occurred at 2:10 PM on Friday.
Savannah Arts Academy lets out at 2:40 PM. I'm sorry, but how much of this was about protesting for gun control laws and how much was about having an excuse to get an earlier jump on the weekend?
Look, I get the students' concerns. They're beaten over the head by the idea that it's just a matter of time before they're forced to escape the school through a hail of gunfire themselves, so much so that it's difficult for them to recognize that these incidents are still rather rare, all things considered. They're too common by far, admittedly, but they're not happening everywhere or even every day.
Moreover, an assault weapon ban won't make anyone safer. The worst school shooting in American history is still Virginia Tech, and that guy used a couple of handguns. Banning AR-15s won't make anyone safer. It won't reduce the frequency or even the severity of these shootings.
As for "ways to keep guns out of our schools," Georgia has schools as gun-free zones, much like Minnesota. Annunciation Catholic School was also at a church, which is also a gun-free zone. That means it was kind of a double gun-free zone. How much good did that do?
When someone is intent on doing evil, there's nothing you can do to actually stop them.
And the fact that this walkout likely disrupted the educational process, but no one will be punished, is evidence that free speech is alive and well in our schools, just so long as you're pushing an anti-gun agenda. I wish I could say I was surprised, but I'm not. We already know where teachers seem to stand on this debate.
Editor's Note: The mainstream media continues to lie about gun owners and the Second Amendment, confusing these and millions of other students throughout the country.
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