Robinson clarifies the administration’s view of student protests

In light of the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., there has been a surge of student civic engagement as millions of students participated in the nationwide walkout on March 14.

However, as student engagement in protests increases, some schools are enforcing disciplinary action in an attempt to deter students from participating in walkouts.

For instance, on March 14 at C.T English Middle School in Los Gatos, math teacher David Kissner held a pop quiz during the national walkout and flunked any student who chose to participate.  

Furthermore, in an interview with the East Bay Times regarding the protest on the 19th anniversary of the Columbine shooting, Kissner warned students that if they participated in the walkout, they would be removed from school for the day and assigned Saturday school as well as receive zeros on assignments they missed.

By contrast, the protest at Saratoga High wasn’t an academic disruption since it took place during the daily morning tutorial. According to administration, cuts during fourth period were also not an issue.

To find out how the administration views the role of student protests, The Falcon interviewed principal Paul Robinson about school protest policies and guidelines.

 

To what extent can students protest without interfering with school processes?

All they want, as long as it’s not a disruption to the normal running of the school. You don’t leave your rights at the schoolhouse door. What I love about our students is that they are conscious and civically minded and come up with great ways to protest.

 

What are your thoughts on the walkout on March 14  to protest gun violence?

It was fantastic. Students went above and beyond what I had expected. I thought that they protested very civilly, yet got their point across. They worked with the administration and teachers to create an appropriate protest. There weren’t any profane signs being hung up or anything that made others feel uncomfortable or threatened.

 

What role does the administration play during protests?

I would be standing there and making sure that, whether I agreed with the protest or not, the students were safe — and if someone violated a rule, we would deal with that and there may have to be some consequences.

 

Would teachers be able to individually punish students for missing class due to a protest?

I can’t imagine one of our teachers doing something like that. Most of the time we’ve done a good job with having open communication with our students so things like that don’t get in the way.

 

What constitutes a disruptive protest?

Anything that doesn’t allow us to conduct classes as we normally do. If a disruptive protest were to happen, we would ask the students to find a different format or platform. Not only would they annoy teachers, they’d also annoy other students. What kind of message are you sending? It’s just being disruptive to class.

 

Conversely, what do you feel makes a protest meaningful?

When we did Earth Week, one of changes we’ve seen is that our maintenance crew isn’t cleaning up trash after lunch because the Green Team wanted to pick the trash up and measure how much is being left out at lunch. That’s a protest: a visual to make people aware of how much trash is being left out. A protest doesn’t necessarily mean doing something that makes people angry. It means making people aware of an issue, and giving real credence to it.

 

How do you feel about teacher involvement in political conversations?

As educators, we need to be open to many points of views. But you need to be able to share it in a way that doesn’t put down different opinions. I’m sure there are teachers who feel strongly about certain issues, and they can choose to express that or not. What we can’t have happening is the squashing of other opinions that are different from ours; that’s not the right of educators — or anyone. Just because someone feels differently doesn’t mean you’re any less of a person or that you’re wrong. We need to value all perspectives. If we don’t, what are we teaching?

In the future, how should students communicate with administration in terms of planning protests?

We just want to be included. All of us were students before and protesting was our way of life too. I grew up in high school in the ‘60s and ‘70s when protesting the Vietnam War was what we were supposed to be doing. Allow us to work with you and mentor you in the most effective ways of getting your point across that are safe, but also valuable. We’d be happier working with you than looking like we’re on the opposite side. My hope would be that the protest would be civil yet still meaningful. It’s hard for me to imagine a situation where myself and our students would come head to head on an issue we can’t agree on.