As part of a new state law limiting the ability of students to conduct a walkout protest, the Kansas State Board of Education is considering a complaint form that would invite people to report protests that they believe violate the law.
The new law bars students from attending a walkout protest without written parental permission. It also outlines potential fines for school districts, up to the amount of their superintendent’s salary, if the state determines a district failed to enforce its attendance policy or encouraged a student walkout.
In an effort to comply with the law, the state board is considering a complaint form for people to report student walkouts. State education officials would also be responsible for investigating the complaints and determining if a reported walkout did violate the law.
The proposed form asks people to report details like the names of student organizers, how many students participated and any evidence that staff “encouraged, facilitated or enabled” the walkout.
Gabby Delaney, a student at Derby High School, participated in an anti-ICE walkout last school year. She said students will likely still organize spontaneous walkouts.
“I mean, you can't really stop a protest,” said Delaney, who will be a sophomore this fall. “At the same time, nobody (on staff) was ever encouraging protests at [our] school.”
Kansas Republicans passed the new law in response to anti-ICE walkouts at several schools across the state last school year. The protests came after immigration agents in Minneapolis killed two protesters in separate incidents.
Delaney said disruption is part of the appeal of a walkout, drawing more attention than passive forms of protest.
“(Getting parents’ permission) just defeats the whole point of protesting,” she said. “It's not supposed to be like, ‘Oh, can we protest?’ It's supposed to be like, ‘Hey, we need to make a change.’”
In the landmark Supreme Court case Tinker vs. Des Moines, the court ruled that students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”
But that precedent generally applies to more passive forms of speech, like students wearing T-shirts in protest, and does not necessarily extend to protests that disrupt school attendance.
Still, some worry the law will ultimately punish student expression.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) serves as a watchdog against laws that potentially violate the First Amendment, particularly in educational settings.
Adam Goldstein, vice president of strategic initiatives for the group, said that instead of potentially punishing districts or students for walkouts, the state should use the opportunity to teach students what kinds of protests are protected in schools.
“Actually trying to sell to students the value of civics in a way that makes them understand: ‘Look, here's a list of things you could do that aren't walking out,’” he said.
“If you punish students without having that conversation, they're not going to understand exactly what the message is here. They're going to think, ‘Well, they just don't like me, or they just don't like my belief.’”
Goldstein also worries that the new complaint form could violate student privacy.
“If your law begins from the idea that we're going to require people to collect information on minors and turn it into the government, you might not have thought this through carefully enough,” he said. “That can't be our best idea on how to deal with this.”
When state school board members discussed the new form at their July meeting, Republican board member Debby Potter of Garden Plain instead raised concerns about the privacy of those who potentially report a protest.
She said parents and other community members should be able to report walkouts without providing their own personal details to the school district.
People who submit complaints about walkouts could be “afraid of retaliation” from the school district, Potter said. “I can’t support this without some protection for the parents.”
She asked if staff members could change the form to say that the complainant’s personal details would not be shared with school administrators.
Mark Ferguson, legal counsel for the state board, said it’s common to require people to provide their names when requesting any kind of formal investigation.
“If you’re engaging the resources of the agency to conduct an investigation, I would say best practices are that you have somebody sign and be accountable,” he said.
The state board is expected to vote on the complaint form at its meeting in August.
