Just a completely different take here. If the end result is to educate the masses then why not do that. Let her and her friends bring in an expert (there are associations that would love to do this talk) and talk to the principal about having them talk to the school body on the subject. It can be very effective. This is being proactive and an organizer. Both great traits.
Not related at all but my son “had” absence seizures in middle school. As part of an awareness project he was working on he brought in the Epilepsy association to do a talk on how to recognize and support someone if they have a seizure. This was extremely well received and to his surprise many kids approached him thanking him for bringing up the subject. They or someone they knew had epilepsy.
Many kids are bullied in various ways in today’s society. I think kids bully others on the internet etc and don’t really even know what their doing. Just going along, following others behavior.
It’s really like a call or email or two to make this happen. Personally, I think this is more of a win /win then just a protest.
It’s good to stand up for injustice. My life’s motto is “it’s never wrong to be kind.”
I’d just be super sure about the facts. As some one mentioned above, I’d first make sure it’s not a case of “telephone tag.”
I’m realizing how important fact checking is after friend told me about an incident – not knowing we were there when it happened – and she had it ALL WRONG! I couldn’t believe how the details were so skewed. It opened my eyes to how easily an event can be changed the number of times the story is told.
“Boat rocker” or not, it’s not OK to teach your kids to break rules like that, especially for a disciplinary decision they have no facts on or concern with. A 13 year old doesn’t have the maturity to make an objective evaluation of these adult matters, and should never be involved in “protests” of any kind at their age. It’s not even a protest, it’s a bunch of kids trying to stage a coup. The school is within their right to be the adult in the room and suspend/expel every kid who defies legitimate authority. School is not the place for that.
Exactly, and she NEVER will. (Right to privacy trumps their so-called need to know.) Thus, time to learn some critical thinking skills: do they want to protest on rumor and innuendo (like many today), or based on facts?
Bullying is reprehensible. Perhaps a better strategy is to start an anti-bullying student group to work the the teachers/Admin. (Keep in going thru HS and get great EC…)
Ugh, I just hope “walkouts” don’t become as common in the US as they are in other countries. When my daughter studied in Spain in high school for a semester, there were repeated “strikes” by the students. My niece is reporting the same thing in South America. They really start disrupting the educational process.
I am happy there is at least civic engagement by youth. In local elections, my city averages a 17% voting rate with an average age of voter of 66 years. Such is not good for the future of democracy. Teens are capable of expressing opinions and should be encouraged to do so. Many are more capable than adults I know.
Wow, I couldn’t disagree more. I want my kids to have passion and if they think the rules are wrong to fight them by any means necessary.
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I’d encourage my child to walk out if they felt so moved and help them sort out the consequences.
I’m with ML; there’s a large HS by my office, and walkouts seem to be the rule of the day. Topics for walkouts included a favored teacher being transferred, bad food at the cafeteria, global warming, and alleged police brutality at another local HS.
Were these worth a walkout? Maybe, but the most serious-the local police brutality-was based on bad information(occured at a HS with the same name in a different city in a different state).
So I’d recommend getting all the facts-if possible-before even considering a walkout-and then consider whether the walkout is a good idea. Should it be done for local issues-bullying, for example-or for national or worldwide issues-healthcare, global warming, criminal justice reform? Or both?
It’s a very slippery slope, and walkouts will definitely disrupt the education process. So yes, in most instances, I’d strongly recommend against a walkout.
No matter what you decide to let her do for this issue, I think you need to also have a conversation about how the decision may need to be different when she is in high school.
It may be more beneficial to teach her the things that would be best practices in high school and beyond, not what is OK for now because it is “only” middle school and doesn’t matter in the long run.
In contrast, I’ve been keeping track of the protests in Chile, Bolivia, Hong Kong, etc. and admiring the conviction and involvement of the populace - for the peaceful ones of course.
Look at the sheer magnitude of protest in Hong Kong, in Santiago. In Santiago, over 1 million people - that’s one out of 5-6 people in the city, one out of 18 in the whole country! Got to admire that desire for change and the civic awareness.
I guess it’s different when you have a son’s education and safety impacted by riots in Lebanon and a niece’s education and safety impacted by riots in Chile. At the same time! And there have been deaths in both countries.
Both son and niece’s semesters have been extended so it appears that they won’t be home by Christmas.
A similar situation happened at my daughter’s middle school. They were in an honors program (similar to IB for middle school) so the group of kids were together all day. One kid was disruptive, a bully to other kids, always causing trouble and picking on others. and the kids thought the teachers did ‘nothing.’ This was a fact all agreed on (the kids and the teachers)and no one liked the bully.
One day another kid just snapped and attacked the bully kid when the bully was picking on him. The bully kid was physically hurt. I forget if his eye was injured or a tooth broken but something physical did happen and I do think the bully was physically much bigger than the attacker. ALL the kids thought the bully deserved it and thanked the kid who attacked him. However, the rules (and laws) were clear and it was the attacker who was expelled just before the end of 8th grade. Many of these kids were going to specialized hs programs and I think he lost his place at that hs too.
The others could protest all they wanted but the school and district administration had no choice but to expel the attacker. It also had to be a police matter because it was a physical attack and the students were over 10 years old. Yes, a 4th grader can be arrested for hitting a classmate and it doesn’t matter that the attacker is smaller or that the hit was justified. The students do not get to decide that the bully deserved it.
So in this case did my daughter feel the attacker should not have been expelled or punished at all? Yes. Was she right? No.
No one is suppressing their 1st amendment rights but that doesn’t mean they can just leave class as a protest whenever they don’t agree with something. the way to change the rules (and is it really a bad rule to punish a student for a physical attack?) is not to walk out of class. If they are not in class, they should be marked absent. If they miss a test or an assignment, they should receive a 0. In the hallway without a pass? Whatever discipline that gets in the school handbook.
I would steer my 13 year old away from this ‘protest’ and have her get the facts.
Just noting, there are high schools that would assign blame even if a kid was defending him/her self- or breaking up a fight.
But I disagree this walkout could groom a 7th grader into a troublemaker in hs. OP implies he wants her to think it through. Yes, she could have incomplete info, but he can encourage her to check further. Now and in the future.
Letter writing? To the hs administration? It’s a valid choice. But frankly, that seems like stepping back, maybe out of fears. “Don’t rock the boat.”
5 years from now, if she’s been involved in causes, advocacy, using her energies, beyond classes and clubs, she’ll be fine with even tough adcoms.
Unless the facts are pellucid, it is a bad idea for a MS student to join others in a walkout.
And gotta disagree with the above; one sibling was “involved in causes, etc etc”. Was viewed as an agitator, the school principal in a face to face meeting said he’d make sure all recommendations for college were very poor if "advocacy"didn’t stop-and he followed up on that promise. So the applications never got reviewed by “tough admcoms” because the LORs were so poor.
I think most colleges are very supportive of student protests conducted appropriately, and most high school administrators know better than to threaten retaliation in the college process. The March for Our Lives leaders certainly had good college outcomes.
@crankyoldman , sorry, but maybe that student was an agitator or the school rules were different.
If this was a sibling, presumably we’re talking decades ago.
Today, too many kids think just calling something a “passion” is magic. “Look at me, I have a ‘passion’ for crocheting!!!” Or the infamous, “I want to help people,” but the kid never lifted a finger to help local needy. Maybe just leaned back and wrote letters. Lol.
And there have been deaths in both countries.