Do not question "the movement."

[Nightshade]

...even if it is supposedly your job to enforce normal school day rules on school grounds.

[Spidey]

Her mistake was using abortion as the alternate example, she should have used ‘gay rights’ or ‘global warming’.

[Tunnelcat]

She's too young to remember the Civil Rights protests, the feminist protests and the Vietnam War protests on the 1960's. Most people were not very accommodating or supportive of everyone's right to freely protest those issues back then either. Society rarely accepts change willingly. There's a lot of inertia and some people just don't want change. Back then, I don't remember most schools (K through 12) willingly letting students out of class just to join some protest for, say, Civil Rights or the Women's Movement either. It was regularly taught in class, but if students wanted a hands on experience, it wasn't so easy to do.

Students today have to take a stand and walk out on their own if they're going to get things rolling. They also need a critical mass of students willing to take their stance and make that stand, because there's power in numbers. With social media today, they may be able to reach that critical mass far more easily. Funny how the passage of time dilutes everyone's memory and people forget that protesting something is a time honored American tradition whenever a group of people feel that they aren't being heard and want change. The students of today are going to have to take some lessons from the veteran protestors of the 1960's, the Boomers, if they want to drive their point home and actually accomplish some meaningful change.

[Vander]

I think we should arm teachers so they can shoot kids who try to protest!

Really, though, I don't think any school or teacher should allow kids to do such a walk out for a protest like that without the normal consequences, even if I might agree with what they're doing. Their only participation should be trying to ensure the safety of the kids during the action. If I were a teacher there I'd mark the kids absent. Civil disobedience has consequences, and that should be a teachable moment.

It also sounds like this teacher was doing a good thing by discussing what was going on.

[Burlyman]

school is dumb... kids should walk out permanently until it actually teaches useful information

No student should be punished for standing up for what he believes in. Funny how these kids will march against guns but they won't stop bullying people to the point of mental breakdown

[Tunnelcat]

.....Funny how these kids will march against guns but they won't stop bullying people to the point of mental breakdown

An interesting observation I hadn't thought of. They fear being shot in class, so they obviously love life and self-preservation. Yet they'll stand around or worse, turn a blind eye, while some of their own brethren direct hateful attacks towards a single classmate who happens to be "different". They'll rarely blink an eye, let alone leave class and protest in mass like it means something. They'll go right back to staring at their smartphones clicking on ethereal condolences to assuage their guilt when eventually that poor soul decides to commit suicide.

[Top Gun]

Have you talked to any of these kids to know that's how they act? Because right now you just sound ridiculously prejudiced against them.

[Tunnelcat]

Have you talked to any of these kids to know that's how they act? Because right now you just sound ridiculously prejudiced against them.

TopGun, I was a kid at one time and I was one of those "different" kids when I went through K through 12 school. I wasn't really all that different from my peers, just enough to become a target and be shunned. I bore the brunt of bullying for years. It was so depressing, I didn't want to even go to school most of the time. I had to plan my days and walks home to avoid those particular nasty little bastards who loved to target me for nothing else than their own sick power trips. It sometimes got so bad, I might have ended up as one of those suicide statistics because of the constant crap I dealt with every day. But even worse, frustration and anger may have prompted my youthful impulse driven brain to create my own special kill list and then follow through with it. The teachers never had a clue, because telling them made things far worse for me. It wasn't for want of trying, but kids can be persistent and vengeful. They can be downright cruel and nasty towards any peers they believe are not like themselves, especially for "snitches" or "tattle tails".

I would have hated to go to school in the internet age. It would have magnified all that by a thousand fold. I feel for all the bullied kids today. There is no out. If kids today want to stop other kids from using guns or other weapons to kill their peers, I'm all for it. Our schools don't need to be killing zones or war zones. But for God's sake, don't focus on one problem and ignore the one that's been historically staring everyone in the face like a giant zit and for which everyone's talked about but never adequately addressed. In fact, if you solve one, you may even prevent the other. A lot of those school shooters were bullied and they obviously could no longer take it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_s ... o_bullying

[Burlyman]

Have you talked to any of these kids to know that's how they act? Because right now you just sound ridiculously prejudiced against them.

Looks like you are the one who sounds ridiculous. Why would any of us need to "talk to kids" when we've all been through schooling? Dumb question.

[Top Gun]

Because you don't know anything about those particular kids? Because most of you last set foot in a high school decades ago?

[Tunnelcat]

Because you don't know anything about those particular kids? Because most of you last set foot in a high school decades ago?

Teenagers never change. They'll always have the same worries, angst and hormone driven craziness we all dealt with when we were kids. I haven't forgot any of my high school experiences. Those memories are permanently branded into my brain, at least until I become old and senile. I'll agree that the only differences between us "adults" and today's high schoolers are that we never had to deal with a gun toting crazy classmate who shot up his school and killed our friends as we sat at school and that's a pretty damn BIG and scary difference. I applaud them for showing the chutzpah and fortitude to continue in the Boomer's footsteps as modern day agitators and protestors. They are the ones who will make some lasting changes.

[Top Gun]

Look, I'm not denying that bullying is still a huge issue in schools, and social media creates a myriad of issues that started to crop up only after I'd already left high school; teens today are probably under more emotional stress than ever. But at the same time, I'd argue that there's far more awareness of bullying than there was even 15-20 years ago, both at an institutional level and among students themselves. There's a greater sense of how damaging it can be, some of which sadly as a direct result of Columbine and its bloody descendants. Kids will always be kids, but I've found that at least in some respects, kids today are far more self-aware than most of us give them credit for, and probably much more so than I was at that age. They're living these issues and seeing the effects, and at least internally I think a lot of them have a strong desire for change. Our job is helping them harness it in a positive way.

[Tunnelcat]

What do you think of the opposite problem, students bullying teachers and school administrators? There was a news story on this morning about students who are unruly, rude and violent towards their teachers and it seems to be a more modern problem. Teachers are even quitting their jobs it's gotten so bad. Worse, the parents usually side with their kids or even join with their kids in ganging up on a teacher whenever that teacher or the school officials want to enforce some sort of discipline.

http://schoolsofthought.blogs.cnn.com/2 ... ys-target/

I remember when I was in a junior high school science class in the late 1960's, there where a couple of boys who were being obnoxious disruptive jerks during a lesson. The male teacher took no guff nor any prisoners. He brought them up to the front of class and actually paddled them on their butts with a wooden paddle. It actually shocked me, even back then, but no one complained or blinked an eye and no parents ever complained. Frankly, the little pricks deserved it and they were quiet from then on. If a teacher did something like that today, they'd be arrested for assault.

[Burlyman]

Because you don't know anything about those particular kids? Because most of you last set foot in a high school decades ago?

Another dumb reply. Lol