One of the nation’s biggest school districts is letting pupils take a day off every year to PROTEST in response to rising student activism
- Students in Virginia school district will be allowed a day off per year to protest
- It comes amid a wave of student activism, from gun control to climate change
- Board member said: ‘I think we’re setting the stage for the rest of the nation’
Students in a Virginia school district will soon be allowed to take a day off in order to participate in protests in a novel new policy.
The school board of Fairfax County has confirmed it will formerly allow the children to skip a day of class in order to exercise their civil rights.
It comes amid a wave of student activism across the country which has seen thousands of young people take to the streets to call for change, from stricter gun laws to action on climate change.
It comes amid a wave of student activism across the country which has seen thousands of young people take to the streets to call for change, from stricter gun laws to action on climate change. Young climate activists protest in New York
At 188,000 students, Fairfax County Public Schools is one of the country’s biggest school districts and the largest in Virginia.
School spokeswoman for Fairfax County Public Schools Lucy Caldwell confirmed the students in seventh to 12th grade will be formerly allowed one excused absence each school year for ‘civic engagement activities’, starting January 27, 2020.
‘The school board felt that this was something that could be formalized and wanted to put into writing. There were many students who were engaged and have been engaged and it was decided that it was time to go ahead and put into place,’ Caldwell told local media.
Fairfax School Board member Ryan McElveen, who introduced the policy, explained that ‘civic engagement activities’ could include not just marches but sit-ins and lobbying.
He added: ‘I think we’re setting the stage for the rest of the nation with this.’
‘It’s a dawning of a new day in student activism, and school systems everywhere are going to have to be responsive to it.’
Fairfax is the first district in the US to adopt the new policy, which has been met with mixed reactions online.
Fairfax School Board member Ryan McElveen (pictured), who introduced the policy, explained that ‘civic engagement activities’ could include not just marches but sit-ins and lobbying
One Twitter user said: ‘Fairfax County has a dozen extra school days already in case of weather closures. No big deal. This is just virtue signaling.’
Another praised the step taken by the school district, saying it would help students grow up to become more engaged citizens.
‘Congratulations for this big step in helping students to take on the important role of being engaged citizens,’ they wrote.