An Ohio high school student says he was suspended for refusing to leave his classroom on the day of the gun control walkout, dubbed the National School Walkout.
Hilliard Davidson High School senior Jacob Shoemaker says he didn’t want to choose sides on the day of the highly political walkout, so he stayed in the classroom instead of participating in the walkout or heading to a study hall in the commons.
“If he went outside for the walkout, he said, he would be supporting gun control. If he stayed in the common area of the school, he said, he would be seen as supporting gun violence and disrespecting the 17 lives lost in the Parkland, Fla. High school shooting the month before,” reports Fox News.
Shoemaker did his homework for about 20 minutes in the classroom locked by his teacher.
For rejecting the hyper-political binary option placed before him, Shoemaker was slapped with a two-day out-of-school suspension by the school. The suspension slip indicates that the teen was disciplined for refusing to “follow instructions.”
The photo of the boy’s detention slip went viral after one of his friends posted it online.
[[{“fid”:”31357″,”view_mode”:”default”,”fields”:{“format”:”default”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:false,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:”Jacob Shoemaker”},”type”:”media”,”field_deltas”:{“1”:{“format”:”default”,”field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]”:false,”field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]”:”Jacob Shoemaker”}},”attributes”:{“title”:”Jacob Shoemaker”,”class”:”media-element file-default”,”data-delta”:”1″}}]]
Scott Shoemaker, the boy’s father, was upset by the ordeal, explaining that his son was just trying to stay neutral and did nothing wrong.
“Politics [doesn’t] belong in the school,” said Mr. Shoemaker. “Students shouldn’t be pressured into taking a side.”
“He didn’t do anything to deserve this,” he added. “He didn’t ask for this.”
Both the teen and the school have reportedly received death threats over the matter.
“The district says it’s responsible for students’ safety and they can’t be unsupervised,” notes Fox.