Posted:
January 2, 2020
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NATIONAL HEADLINES
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Virginia School District To Allow Students To Skip School To Protest
by Eric A. BlairDecember 31, 2019
TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images
Democrats now control the governorship, Senate and House of Delegates in Virginia, so you can expect the state to begin swooping left.
And right on cue, liberals are getting loopy in the state.
One of the largest school districts in the United States has announced that it will allow students to skip school once per school year to participate in civic activities such as protests.
The county, just outside Washington, D.C., will allow students in seventh through 12th grades to skip school to engage “in ‘civic engagement activities’ such as attending marches or meeting with lawmakers, according to district spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell,” NBC News reported.
“I think we’re setting the stage for the rest of the nation with this,” Fairfax School Board member Ryan McElveen told The Washington Post. “It’s a dawning of a new day in student activism, and school systems everywhere are going to have to be responsive to it.”
Under the guidelines, students must fill out a form at least two days ahead of their planned absence that explains the reason they plan to miss school, McElveen said. They must obtain permission from a parent or guardian, and they must stop by their school campus at least once on the day of their excused absence — a measure adopted to address worries about accreditation, McElveen said.
But the teenagers do not need administrators’ sign-off, McElveen said. Although front office staff at each school — most likely an assistant principal — will glance over a student’s request, school officials can’t veto it, McElveen said. Instead, if a reviewer finds the stated reason for skipping school troubling, a regional assistant superintendent can be alerted and may intervene — but possibly after the protest.
The built-in bureaucratic delay is purposeful, McElveen said.
“There is no strong definition of a ‘civic engagement’ activity,” he said, “because I think we have to be careful not to pick and choose activities.”
