Contrary to what he wrote in a letter warning parents and students that participants in a national walkout to protest gun violence would be subject to “disciplinary action,” Lisbon Superintendent Richard Green said Friday that the handful of students who walked out of Lisbon High School on Thursday will not be disciplined.
Green later contacted the BDN to clarify that students who walked out without prior approval would not be allowed back into school on Thursday, which he considered to be punishment. The students were not suspended or assigned to detention, according to the superintendent
After a snowstorm forced postponement of a walkout planned for Wednesday, about five Lisbon High School students walked out at 10 a.m. Thursday.
The students remained outside for 17 minutes — one for each life lost when a former student opened fire Feb. 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
Most superintendents took no position prior to the walkout, and some, including Brunswick, took steps to turn the action into a “teachable moment.”
Green asked in the Feb. 28 letter that parents of students who planned to walk out could call and request that their children be dismissed prior to the event, because they would not be able to return to school.
On Thursday, “the majority” of the students who left the building had been dismissed by their parents, and would face no consequences. Those who had not been dismissed — “a couple” — would not be disciplined either, Green said.
Inside the school, at 10 a.m., more students left their classrooms and stood in hallways, and one student sat for 17 minutes in the principal’s office, Green said.
At 10:08 a.m., classes change, Green said, so “it was hard to say who was actually trying to make a statement and who was having a conversation trying to get to class. I did hear people having conversations on their opinion on gun control. The protest was designed to be silent, but the kids were talking about gun control. They didn’t follow the protocol.”
But far fewer walked out than the “whole page” of names he had been shown by one student as those expected to participate.
Three Lisbon police officers were at the school Thursday morning — one outside the school and two in the hallways — he said.
“It wasn’t organized, that’s for sure,” Green said. “Most kids took advantage of staying inside where it was safe, in a secure building.”
He clarified that by safe, he meant from hazards such as delivery trucks.
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