Unreal: Ohio Student Suspended for Not Participating in Anti-Gun Student Walkout

Students Rally in front of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, March 14, 2018. Student walked out of school to protest gun violence in the biggest demonstration yet of the student activism that has emerged in response to last month's massacre of 17 people at Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

You will be made to care.

An Ohio student was given the choice to either protest with other students during the national walkout that was meant to honor the lives of the 17 slain during the Parkland shooting but became an anti-gun showpiece for the media.

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According to AP, senior Jacob Shoemaker wanted to remain non-political and refused to participate in the walkout. AP, said the student was given also given the choice to head to study hall, but chose to remain in class.

This resulted in a one-day suspension:

An Ohio high school student says he tried to remain nonpolitical during school walkouts over gun violence and was suspended for a day because he stayed in a classroom instead of joining protests or the alternative, a study hall.

Hilliard senior Jacob Shoemaker says school isn’t the place for politics, and he wasn’t taking sides Wednesday.

Word got around online due to a student posting about Shoemaker’s suspension, which led some to believe he was suspended for participating in the walkout, resulting in some confusion that became threatening to his family:

Scott Shoemaker says some people thought his son was suspended for walking out, and angry comments accumulated, including some that mistook Scott for the principal. He says he also got a couple death threats and had to consider switching phone numbers.

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I’ve never heard of a student being punished for wanting to stay in class before, but here we are. Either protest alongside everyone for the cause du jour, or face consequences.

That the school wanted to relocate those who wouldn’t participate in the protest to a single location is also not the brightest way to do things. It exposes those who wouldn’t participate more easily. Remaining in class would have been the better option and the idea that the school punished a student for remaining in class where he would be considered outside of safe bounds is ridiculous.

Hillard High School should rethink its political vehemency.

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