By now you are probably aware that many students across the country plan to stage a walkout on March 14th at 10:00 am as a protest against school violence as well as a remembrance of the 17 students who died in the recent school shooting in Florida. As you can imagine, this presents a lot of opportunities as well as problems for schools.
I have had the chance to review and discuss potential options with other school leaders across the region. To that end, I wanted to let you know how we plan to deal with the situation and what the expectations are of our students, faculty, and staff.
To begin with, many of the students feel very passionate about being in solidarity with other students across the country, however, some do not. While I want to acknowledge those who want to walk, it is of equal importance to protect the rights of those who do not. My approach to all of this has been one of keeping the students safe, while being pragmatic about the reality of dealing with hundreds of students, and their parents, in terms of safety, discipline, and academic consequences. Here are the main points:
As always, please email or call me with any questions.