Student Walkouts
Educators should engage with local districts to encourage districts to adopt plans about how to respond to student walkouts before the walkouts happen.
Such plans should address educators’ duties during student walkouts, including whether educators are supposed to accompany students during the walkout to ensure their safety.
Plans can facilitate student protest activity in a safe and educational manner by, for example, providing time and space for student demonstrations and guaranteeing that neither students nor educators will be penalized for participating in a walkout.
Plans should also address how families will be notified of planned walkouts, so that parents know their children may be out of school and unsupervised. Schools may also consider designating staff members to supervise the students or providing a safe space on campus for students to protest.
Absent the agreement or support of school administrators, educators should not lead or assist in organizing walkouts from school, as such efforts would likely be considered an unlawful strike in violation of state and local laws or school district policies.
Neither the First Amendment nor state and local collective bargaining laws and agreements give educators a right to join student walkouts. As a consequence, you could face discipline or even termination for joining a walkout or helping students to organize a walkout.
To illustrate the point, a recent walkout that was conducted with the support of school administrators involved middle school students in San Francisco, California walking out for one period to demand a better wellness center with social workers and therapists. Teachers and a school resource officer joined the students outside to make sure they were safe. The school district held community meetings for parents to express their concerns. There was no report of students facing discipline.
The San Francisco school supported and protected its students.
By contrast, at a high school in Warwick, Pennsylvania nearly all of the students who participated in a walkout received in-school suspensions.
The students were protesting anti-LGBT bullying in the community. They missed their lunch period and one class. After the walkout, the school principal called students into her office one at a time and issued the suspensions for leaving class without permission and for being out of their assigned areas.