The Bentonville School Board has already made it clear that student protests against gun violence today will be met with the harshest discipline allowed under district guidelines. It’s just politics, a 4-3 majority declared, to show solidarity with children massacred in Florida classrooms.
That was bad. This is worse.
KNWA reports that a student, Summerlin Hutson, was suspended for two days for distributing flyers about a planned Bentonville walkout. Her dad spoke up for her. She apparently ran afoul of a district rule requiring two-day-advance approval for distribution of flyers.
Really?
Pre-approval for 1st Amendment speech and petition?
Would you be suspended in Bentonville for distributing copies of the U.S. Constitution without two-day prior approval?
Rules are rules, dammit. Unless, if I may be allowed to repeat myself, you are a veteran Bentonville employee who steals from district money for personal use. Or unless it’s a rule about the required number of certified boiler operators. In those cases, wiggle room is allowed in Bentonville.
I hope Bentonville sees a 2,000-student walkout and then must hold a football stadium mass D-hall for these anarchist rule breakers. Maybe one of them will write a Letter from the Bentonville Jail. At a
Your sons and daughters are beyond your command, Bentonville bullies.
Good for @Bville_Schools . Schools have rules for order. Violation of those rules have consequences. https://t.co/hRvF4urCjv
— Bart Hester (@BartHester) March 13, 2018
Note support for authoritarianism from an unsurprising state Senate source. I commended him with the image of