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A brief note on student walkouts

3/15/2018

 
Yesterday, the day of the student walkouts to protest gun violence, Robert Pondiscio published a blog  suggesting that participating students ought to face the usual consequences (whatever they might be at their school) for missing class.

I posted a link to this blog on social media with the provocative (but not inaccurate) title "Why students participating in the walkout today ought to be punished." A few people expressed puzzlement and a few expressed outrage, so I thought I'd explain.

Pondiscio's point is easily summarized with this quote: "By its very nature, an act of civil disobedience means the protester refuses to comply  with rule, norms, and expectations.”

Pondiscio goes farther than I would, saying that “compliance rob[s] the protest of any meaning,” and Andy Rotherham seems to agree in his own blog, saying that if students know in advance a walkout is consequence-free “it’s theater.” I think it's still meaningful to show support, but I don’t see how you can argue that it’s an act of civil disobedience or a walkout.

Rotherham touches on another theme that I agree with: adults coordinating the walkout, seeking ways to make it easy and "safe" for kids, fits a more general pattern of adults today exercising too much control over kids' lives, and keeping them safe in ways that ultimately backfire. (Watch for Greg Lukianoff and Jon Haidt's book on this subject, The Coddling of the American Mind.)

Both Pondiscio and Rotherham made another point that I found much more telling, and is the reason I thought the blog worth sharing: teachers and administrators allowing students to attend walkouts sets a terrible precedent.

My concern is that educators who suspended the usual consequences for students missing class did so because they agreed with the cause of the protesters. I do too, but it seems pretty clear that I can’t suspend a policy only for causes I agree with. So what happens when people want to cut class not to protest gun violence, but to support gun owners rights, or to lower the drinking age, or to show support for Nancy Pelosi or Donald Trump? “Slippery slope” arguments often make me roll my eyes, but in this case, I think it’s apt. Are students to be allowed to walk out of classes for any protest? (I imagine middle-school me, at the pizza place during math class, telling the vice principal between bites "This is the way I protest congressional inaction on term limits.")

Maybe there's a good argument for educators taking the role of sanctioning or punishing protests based on their content. I haven't heard it. 
Steve Peha link
3/15/2018 03:56:34 pm

Good points here, Dan. I chimed in on Bob’s thread yesterday with the question about large numbers of kids walking out and if that could be “processed” in a reasonable way. Massive party mic actions, whatever size “massive” is often have to be treated as special cases afte an event has occurred. The other things that come to mind are these: 1. What exactly is the penalty for quietly walking out of class and then back in 17 minutes later? 2. Might some kids just skip whatever period that is anyway? And, if excused by a parent, receive different treatment? And 3. For many schools that use systems of escalating consequences, I assume that one person’s skipped class might be another person’s suspension. Your argument about the slippery slope of precedent seems the strongest to me. On the other hand, I found myself wondering why this was an issue at all. I would have thought some consequence was the default expectation for all. In the principals’ office where all this has to be decided, my hunch is that this is one more unwanted complication—though clearly a necessary one. One final thought: I wonder if “delayed consequences” might be an option. That’s probably as close to what happens to people outside of school. And it accounts for different types of behavior that are likely to arise. So while I think there’s a correct position here, and that the slippery slope idea settles it, I’m not sure that leads easily to correct action. Sure is hard being a school administrator these days.

Gregg Collins
3/15/2018 06:37:34 pm

This argument has a through-the-looking glass quality to it. No part of it holds up to scrutiny. First of all, the students are trying to make a statement, not meet the dictionary definition of "civil disobedience." Second, even if their goal was to meet that definition, "disobedience" does not, in fact, entail subsequent punishment; people disobey without being punished all the time. Finally, even if the students were trying to meet the definition of civil disobedience, and disobedience did entail punishment, it doesn't follow administrators would have an obligation to provide that punishment. The tortured logic here would've made Peter Abelard blush.

Andy
3/16/2018 04:08:58 am

Only the privileged worry about a slippery slope of consequences.

The New Jim Crow makes a compelling case that justice is not color blind.

The latest Samantha Bee video brings to light the enormous power of prosecutors to pick and choose whom they bully.

The poor face penalties for missing a single credit card payment. The rich declare bankruptcy.

I appreciate your desire for consistency, Dr. Willingham.

But the real world does not mete out consistent consequences.


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