Wrong to punish students, Cuomo says
Schools that disciplined students for participating in Wednesday’s walkouts to protest gun violence should reverse the action, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday.
Cuomo stated his position in a letter to New York Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia, and asked her to step in, as word spread of some schools punishing student protesters.
There were rumblings at Kingston High School that students who walked out Wednesday morning would be given in-school suspension, but there was no confirmation Thursday that such action had been taken.
Kingston school district officials did not respond to phone calls from a reporter on Thursday or to an email from the Freeman on Wednesday.
Kingston High School sanctioned an in-school demonstration Wednesday in which students left their classrooms and stood vigil in hallways. But about 100 KHS students left the building and demonstrated at the front of the school property, along Broadway.
The students who protested outdoors were asked to identify themselves upon re-entering the building. A person taking their names said it was to ensure no non-students got in.
The demonstrations at Kingston High School and numerous other schools in the region were part of walkouts nationwide that sought to draw attention to the problem of gun violence in the United States and pay tribute to the 17 people who were killed in the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
Cuomo, in his letter to Elia, said that “threatening to discipline students for participating in the peaceful demonstrations is not only inappropriate, it is unconstitutional.”
He asked the commissioner to use her authority “to stop these schools, reverse course and cease any disciplinary actions.”
Elia responded that she supported the students who exercised their freespeech rights, but she did not say whether she will act to overturn any punishments.
In Red Hook on Wednesday, about 250 students left the high school and walked to the center of town for a rally.
Student Emily Shein, a co-organizer of the Red Hook event, said Thursday that she had not heard of any participants being disciplined.
“They (administrators) have been pretty quiet on it,” she said. “I don’t how much they’re allowed to say about students who have gotten in trouble, but I haven’t heard any rumors ... of students getting in trouble.”
Phone calls to Red Hook district officials also were not returned Thursday.
Cuomo wrote in his letter to Elia that “peaceful expression of views on controversial issues that is not disruptive or threatening is a right that all students have in this country, and any attempts to stifle this speech violates the constitutional rights of students and faculty to free speech.”
“The students who participated in the walkout are trying to advance laws and actions that would save their lives, and many viewed their participation as necessary to their own safety,” the governor wrote. “The scourge of mass shootings in schools is very real, and these students were taking proactive steps to protect themselves and their classmates.
“These actions, coupled with the peaceful manner in which the demonstrations were conducted, is something that should be lauded, not punished.”
Cuomo also asked Elia to investigate reports that some schools in the state blocked exits so students couldn’t leave.
The governor called such actions “an egregious safety violation” and unlawful.