This week, Rocklin High School, which made headlines on National Walkout day for putting a teacher on paid administrative leave for questioning the school’s endorsement of the event, officially rejected a student petition to similarly sanction a pro-life demonstration. When students asked the school to give them 17 minutes to “walkout for life,” the school exposed its “double standard” regarding politically-charged events.
AP History teacher Julianne Benzel, who has taught at Rocklin for two decades, learned just a half-hour before school on National Walkout Day that she had been placed on paid administrative leave. She was given no explanation for the suspension, only learning the school’s rationale that afternoon when reporters arrived at her house. The reason she was told to stay home: she’d asked students the week before to consider the ramifications of the school officially endorsing a student walkout for a political cause. By supporting the 17-minute gun control demonstration, was the school now obligating itself to support any political demonstration? How about a pro-life event, asked Benzel.
Benzel was quickly reinstated, the school clearly wanting the incident to go away. However, one of Benzel’s pro-life students decided to test the school’s standards and petitioned the school to allow students to demonstrate against abortion in the exact same way as they had for gun control. The event was to be held on April 11, exactly one month after National Walkout Day. The school informed the student a few days before it, that they would not back the event, claiming that the difference was that the gun control event was “content neutral” as it focused on “school safety.” Abortion, administrators told Benzel, is “a controversial issue.” – READ MORE
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