Don't Violate Students' Right to Free Speech!
- by: Advocates For Students' Rights
- recipient: Board of Education, Prince George's County Public Schools
16-year-old Shane James, an honor roll student with a 4.5 GPA, and three other students have been suspended for five days from Northwestern High School for organizing a March 1 walkout over teacher salaries, improving the quality of education and calling for an apology to Filipino teachers who will lose their jobs due to their visas expiring. The school's first-year principal, Edgar Batenga, learned about the walkout the night before it was to occur and instructed students not to participate. The four students have been suspended on the grounds that they had “incit[ed] others to disturbance and/or violence," a violation of the school system's policies and procedures.
The school system says that students have the right “to assemble and to demonstrate at such times and in such places within the school building or upon school grounds as the principal of the school may approve.” Principal Batenga did not approve of the planned walkout. But as community leaders and Occupy protesters note, the students' "rights to free speech and to assemble appear to have been violated," says the Washington Post.
The students were not seeking to "incite others to disturbance and/or violence" but seeking to make a peaceful statement about education issues; about concerns directly related to their lives and future. The students' suspensions should be removed from their permanent records and students' right to free speech and to assemble be respected. What kind of lesson are students learning when they see these rights violated?
The school system says that students have the right “to assemble and to demonstrate at such times and in such places within the school building or upon school grounds as the principal of the school may approve.” Principal Batenga did not approve of the planned walkout. But as community leaders and Occupy protesters note, the students' "rights to free speech and to assemble appear to have been violated," says the Washington Post.
The students were not seeking to "incite others to disturbance and/or violence" but seeking to make a peaceful statement about education issues; about concerns directly related to their lives and future. The students' suspensions should be removed from their permanent records and students' right to free speech and to assemble be respected. What kind of lesson are students learning when they see these rights violated?
We, the undersigned, request that the suspension of four Northwestern High School students be removed from their records and that students' right to free speech not be violated by school personnel.
16-year-old Shane James, an honor roll student with a 4.5 GPA, and three other students have been suspended for five days from Northwestern High School for organizing a March 1 walkout over teacher salaries, improving the quality of education and calling for an apology to Filipino teachers who will lose their jobs due to their visas expiring. The school's first-year principal, Edgar Batenga, learned about the walkout the night before it was to occur and instructed students not to participate. The four students have been suspended on the grounds that they had “incit[ed] others to disturbance and/or violence," a violation of the school system's policies and procedures.
The school system says that students have the right “to assemble and to demonstrate at such times and in such places within the school building or upon school grounds as the principal of the school may approve.” Principal Batenga did not approve of the planned walkout. But as community leaders and Occupy protesters note, the students' "rights to free speech and to assemble appear to have been violated," says the Washington Post.
The students were not seeking to "incite others to disturbance and/or violence" but seeking to make a peaceful statement about education issues; about concerns directly related to their lives and future. The students' suspensions should be removed from their permanent records and students' right to free speech and to assemble be respected. What kind of lesson are students learning when they see these rights violated?
Sign PetitionSign Petition16-year-old Shane James, an honor roll student with a 4.5 GPA, and three other students have been suspended for five days from Northwestern High School for organizing a March 1 walkout over teacher salaries, improving the quality of education and calling for an apology to Filipino teachers who will lose their jobs due to their visas expiring. The school's first-year principal, Edgar Batenga, learned about the walkout the night before it was to occur and instructed students not to participate. The four students have been suspended on the grounds that they had “incit[ed] others to disturbance and/or violence," a violation of the school system's policies and procedures.
The school system says that students have the right “to assemble and to demonstrate at such times and in such places within the school building or upon school grounds as the principal of the school may approve.” Principal Batenga did not approve of the planned walkout. But as community leaders and Occupy protesters note, the students' "rights to free speech and to assemble appear to have been violated," says the Washington Post.
The students were not seeking to "incite others to disturbance and/or violence" but seeking to make a peaceful statement about education issues; about concerns directly related to their lives and future. The students' suspensions should be removed from their permanent records and students' right to free speech and to assemble be respected. What kind of lesson are students learning when they see these rights violated?
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