School protests allow students to speak up
High schools are a positive and safe environment in which students should feel supported when voicing their opinions via demonstrating.
When problematic events such as racist graffiti and slurs used by Champlin Park students take place, if the administration will hesitate to bring attention to the incidents, the responsibility falls to those who feel strongly about the issue, namely students.
Demonstrating at Park in support of black Champlin Park students helped to raise awareness of the incident and would not have had the same impact if the protest were organized outside of the school.
Protesting in school may cause students to be absent from their classes, but the absences are bound to gain attention from teachers as well as students who may not have previously heard about the event. Students being absent from their classes gains awareness for the event, the main goal of the protestors in the first place.
Concerning safety, students are much better protected while protesting inside the school, as many public rallies take place on public streets making the likelihood of an accident more probable. School buildings are supervised and protected, making students safer than they would be on the streets.
When protests take place within a school, students can access protests more easily than if they would have to commute to take part in a protest that takes place miles from their home. Students attend school every day, and being in the vicinity of a protest may motivate students to take part in an event that could help their voice be heard.
Contentious protests disruptive to education
Schools and students should encourage respectful political discourse, but students should not escalate to protesting during school.
While students’ constitutional right of freedom of expression in school remains protected, schools as a whole should (and public schools are obligated to) remain overtly apolitical. Faculty need to keep their political leanings out of the classroom to allow for students to develop their own beliefs. School protests work against this neutrality by encouraging faculty to become involved and forcing the school administration to comment or interdict.
Still, the largest problem with protesting at school is disruption. Even the most perfectly executed, peaceful protests create conflict anywhere diversity of opinion exists. No matter the kind of protest, it will receive publicity and insight contention.
People are expected to take sides, either with or against the protesters. Often arguments and conflicts distract from learning as protests are just too inherently controversial. Acceptable forms of protest still create conflict, and rarely is the conflict beneficial during school — it creates a disturbance, rather than beneficial awareness.
Even if somehow there is absolutely no problem or distraction caused by a protest, students primary focus in a school environment should be learning. If a group of students feel strongly about an important issue, they should organize awareness outside of school because their time in school needs to be spent in class.
Schools are first and foremost a place of education where students should be developing and strengthening their knowledge and awareness of events which call students to protest in the first place. Students should employ justified, successful protests outside of school, where they can protest without any school restrictions and without disrupting their own and other students’ education.