The TeachWonk Diaries: Will There Be A Student Walkout Friday Morning?

Notes From The Education Underground: Yesterday morning, the students of Howard Taft Junior High School were all abuzz with a "Peace & Justice Walkout" that is planned for Friday morning in Middletown's junior and senior high schools.

Many of the students didn't seem to know why they are supposed to be walking out of their classrooms, but several did have some vague idea that it was "about the war."

By the early Thursday afternoon, a messenger made the rounds to each classroom with a note from Principal Phish summoning teachers to report to him immediately after school for a "very, very, important" staff meeting. The note promised a meeting of "less than 10 minutes."

Sure enough, the rumor is true. Apparently, students at a number of junior and senior high schools are planning to participate in some sort of Global Walkout For Peace that has been scheduled for March 18th, 2005. (This happens to be the second anniversary of the start of the Iraq War.)

Principal Phish passed around a copy of this flyer that had been circulating among our students. We were told not to say anything at all about this to the students tomorrow morning. Should student insist on discussing the walkout, we are to discourage them from participating in any demonstrations by reminding them that such protests are illegal.

Middletown Junior High School is located in a small city that has a Naval Air Station situated nearby.

Stay tuned.

Update:(PM) Several hundred students at Middletown's high school did indeed walkout of their classes. They gathered at the local city park for about an hour, and ended-up by going home. Some returned to their classes. The District Superintendent promises to treat all the protesters as truants.

At my school, Howard Taft Junior High, only a few students attempted to walkout and join the high school protest. Swift intervention by school administration stopped the demonstration before it could get started.

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