School Walkouts - What Would Little Sheldon Do? - column

Mack Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

What Would Little Sheldon Do?

The concept of a school walkout, which is a temper tantrum on the level of “I’m going to hold my breath until I turn blue,” isn’t in itself an intellectual challenge – the subject opens the door, often with his or her little fistie clinched while yelling “My momma said I don’t have to put up with your **** anymore,” and walks away.

Is that so difficult?

According to several news sources, the students of Antioch High School in Tennessee messed up a hissy-fit walk-out so badly that they had to try again on Thursday.

According to its own site, Antioch High School is proud to be a S.T.E.M. school (https://schools.mnps.org/antioch-high-school). The principal or her amanuensis also tippy-typed the usual filler-language about “high-quality academic programs, “state-of-the-art” something-or-other, “vision,” “knowledge, skills and character,” and “vision” again.

That’s all well and good, but the future Stephen Hawkings and Albert Einsteins couldn’t even manage skipping school. They tore down a flag and trod on it, vandalized a police car, and fought with each other, all in the name of non-violence.

But, hey, if you call boorish behavior S.T.E.M. then everything’s okay.

On Thursday a selected few young scientists were permitted to walk out again, and reportedly made a success of look-at-me hooky. They raised the flag they had walked on the day before, and the band played the National Anthem.

But how curious that a high school administration organized a walkout. How did they determine which students would be permitted to leave school and who would be required to stay?

In a press release (to go with the student release), the district said:

We encourage parents to talk to your child(ren) about how they may be feeling, and the importance of expressing themselves in appropriate ways while at school. MNPS also has counselors available and ready to talk to students at any time. (https://patch.com/tennessee/antioch-south-nashville/national-school-walkout-antioch-students-rip-down-flag)

Well, all right, the young S.T.E.M visionaries left their classes, and with knowledge, skills, and character tore down the flag, vandalized a police car, and got into fights. And all this peace ‘n’ love was under the guidance of their school administration, who function under the authority of the democratically-elected school board. Maybe the parents will want to share their feelings with the trustees they elected to organize a program of instruction, not a program of rioting.

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