The Newton North and South High Schools student walk-out to end gun violence that had been scheduled for today (Wednesday) has been rescheduled for Thursday because of school cancellation. Mayor Fuller is expected to join the students at South. Superintendent David Fleishman will be at North,
Student walk-out rescheduled to Thursday
by Greg Reibman | Mar 14, 2018 | David Fleishman, Newton North, Newton South, Ruthanne Fuller | 37 comments
Do the Newton Schools ever do delay openings anymore? I no longer have any kids in the schools so I really don’t know the answer.
I am two years out of the system, but if my memory holds (questionable), they were still doing delayed opens on occasion.
Last year on 3/14 there was a delayed opening, but that was the last one. We have had five full snow days this year.
Yes, delayed openings remain an option for NPS.
Needham did a delayed opening today. Seemed to work ok.
I like a delayed opening – a little less stress in the morning, but not tacking on an extra day. What sucks this year is two of their snow days were half days and now they’re going to be made up as full days. I feel like they should be able to count them as one day, but I’m sure they can’t.
Mary, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education requirement is 180 days of school – no exceptions.
Delayed opening or not, I’m pleased to see that students from Newton will be standing shoulder to shoulder with their peers throughout the country, and that the Mayor will be supporting their efforts.
Yes, Margaret, that’s why my comment said, “I’m sure they can’t.”
Boston students marched to the State House today. Shamefully, the Globe does not have a story about this on the home page of their site. Fortunately, the Herald does:
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_coverage/herald_bulldog/2018/03/students_march_against_guns_at_the_state_house
Meredith: I saw both a story and a very good video on BostonGlobe.com today.
With students all over the country, including in Boston, staging their protest walk-out today, I wish Newton’s students could have had a late start so they could join them.
@Marti, Boston didn’t have school today though. Interestingly, BPS planned to allocate 17 minutes of the school day today dedicated to dialogue about school shootings and related topics, which I found to be a brilliant supplement to the walkouts.
Who picked tomorrow for the rescheduled march? Mayor Fuller? David Fleishman?
@Jefferey: I’m trying to understand what point you are trying to make by asking that question.
Many local walkouts have been postponed until tomorrow: Framingham, Arlington, Gloucester, Rockland, to name a few.
Since it was planned by students, I assume the students made the decision and notified the schools.
Greg, I am not making a point. Just asking a question. I am curious. Jim answered the question the way I would have expected.
Why I am curious? Something does not add up. Maybe it seems this way because I don’t have all the facts. Is there a student group that picked tomorrow for the march or is this something that the NPS decided? Is there a student (or student group) organizing it? Remember, there was not school today, so a student group did not get together at school to reschedule.
I am asking because if it is the latter it runs counter to what was said at the last school committee meeting. David Fleishman said that the students were organizing the march and he was proud of them for doing so. My son is a Newton North student. He is on Facebook. He has email. He has not been contacted by ANY students about the march. On the other hand, I have been emailed by the school and told about the march date and then, the rescheduled march date. This seems counter to what we have been told.
Here is my theory about what happened. I can’t prove it without more facts. My guess is some students expressed a desire to have a march and the NPS organized it for them. Frankly, I don’t care too much if this happened, but if this is the case, I think the NPS should be transparent about what is going on. Also, if the NPS helped organize this political rally, will they do so if students wanted to protest things the NPS does. You know, like early high school start times….
I’m a very recent South alum. This event was planned by students and is all over Facebook and Instagram. There’s an event page for the South walkout, and I assume the same for North.
Jim, do you have the URL for the event page? I only see one webpage, but it is not updated with the rescheduled date that the NPS emailed to everyone. I totally believe that students believe in this, but from what I see, it seems like the NPS is doing the leg work on this.
Here’s NSHS: https://www.facebook.com/events/2051694041819608/
Here’s NNHS: https://www.facebook.com/events/148637859144619/
Honestly not sure why the administration is pushing this so much, when it really is a student driven and organized event.
@Greg – yes, the Globe put that up later.
I also want to point about that the NSHS administration threatened to suspend anyone who walked out in solidarity with the BPS budget cut protests a few years ago.
Jeffrey, the walkouts at both North and South are registered on the national event site, listing the student organizers. Student leaders were encouraged to work with school administrators to plan a safe event. Students at the high schools organize large scale events with some frequency (think of affinity days) – they’re very capable, and they don’t need to physically be at school to “meet”.
Jim. Thanks.
I need to walk back my recollection of David Fleishman’s statement. I fumbled through the video of the last school committee meeting and I can’t find it.
Did a student group notify Greg about the change in the date of the student run protest?
Tricia, no doubt this is about the national movement. My point is that the national movement did not reschedule Newton North’s, Newton South’s, and apparently all the middle school’s marches for Thursday at 10AM. It is highly unlikely that students from 2 high schools and presumably 3 middle schools all decided independently to do the same thing, or for that matter, coordinated to do the same thing. It is more likely that someone on the NPS payroll rescheduled the protests and organized things through their email chains.
Here are excerpts from a Bigelow PTO email. BTW, my understanding is that it is forbidden for PTOs to use their emails for political purposes. Did the PTO got this information directly from the 12 year old “organizers?”
“At Bigelow, some students are organizing a walk-out on this date. While they have met for advice with their counselors, this is a student organized and student led event. We have been advised that the current student plan is to leave the building for seventeen minutes, walk on the sidewalk around the building and possibly in Burr Park… “
Jeffrey, did you miss the part of my response where I said that student leaders were encouraged to seek the support of and work with administrators to organize these walkouts? The plan was for the walkout to happen at the same time across the country; that couldn’t happen here, so same time across the district only makes sense. Why is it so hard for you to believe that students could have a meaning role in planning and executing this event? (PTOs can’t advocate a political position, but in any case that’s not what that email did – it notified about an event that students may be participating in.)
Jeffrey-These are student organized, student-led walkouts. NPS is responsible for ensuring that events, no matter who is leading them, are physically and emotionally safe for all students. The system has worked hard to make sure this is the case for students who choose to walk out and for those who choose to remain in the building. I see nothing political about the PTO announcement that merely states that students organized the walkout and met with adults for advice. And yes, 12/13 year olds are capable of organizing an event of this type.
Jeffrey, this has zero to do with later start times. Most people are in agreement that the HS start times need to be changed and are appreciative of your work on the matter, but I’m not sure why you routinely bring it up when it’s irrelevant to the conversation.
Jeffrey I will tell you at Brown this was definitely a student led effort. My 6th grade daughter is involved in planning their walk out. She started meeting with other 6th graders at the library outside of school during February break. They put together a power point and then approached a guidance counselor about what they wanted to do. They connected with students in the older grades who expressed similar interest and proceeded to have many meetings. They met with John Jordan because they were aware that there would likely be some guidelines to follow. He actually sent out a great note that thes school supports the kids effort to do something but also made it clear that it is voluntary and they would support those choosing not to participate. The group met Monday and has continued to communicate via group chat. As a parent I played little to no role. It was actually relatively late in the process that I found out the “school project” she was meeting about was the walkout. So as you can see at Brown this is a truly student led effort. The kids were disappointed for the snow day and eager to know when the walk would occur. Per my daughter the group decided that they would do the walkout today. She was very adamant that it was the group’s decision.
Hi Jeffrey,
My advice: Research first, then comment. My daughter is one of the co-organizers of the North walkout. It is student-led and there were so many students who wanted to work on organizing the event that it was challenging for the organizers to make sure everyone felt they were doing something meaningful. They coordinated with school officials, but were very adamant that the event not be co-opted by the schools and that it would be entirely student run and planned.
Does that help?
Jeffrey, it’s a bit funny that you answered Greg with “Greg, I am not making a point. Just asking a question. I am curious.” Then proceeded to state your point.
I’m surprised by your lack of regard our student population’s organizational skills.
Both the High School’s Walk Out pages on Facebook were updated by student organizers. Basically, the event was rescheduled to today, Thursday, because the students would not be in school.
Thanks everybody for the helpful information. I stand corrected and I am amazed at our students’ ability to coordinate the snow day change in schedule.
Marti, if you read the thread, you will see that I was answering Greg’s question. In retrospect, I should have avoided conjecture and not answered Greg.
The Newtonite posted some video on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/thenewtonite/videos/1597473620321250/
@jeffrey PTOs are not banned from making political statements or supporting legislation (although it is not a political statement for PTO to communicate a student event). PTOs are banned (assuming they are 501c3s) from supporting candidates. You know what other organization is a 501c3? The NRA. So if you think that supporting something political like gun control legislation should also be banned for 501c3s than the NRA would be banned from that as well if they wanted to keep their non-profit status.
On a separate note I do find it interesting that it was too cold to walk outside at NSHS but students at NNHS walked outside. Any insight on this? Is it colder south of Route 9?
Alicia, I don’t think outside temperatures had anything to do with it. I drove by Newton South, not a student in sight, a few police officers, who told me the event was taking place inside the Field House. I drove by Oak Hill Middle School and Brown Middle School which are on the same street, Wheeler Road, and found it so empowering to see that the entire student body of both middle schools were gathered outside. My two cents is that the “temperature” of Newton South is one of keeping this type of protest more controlled, more “temperate” ie, indoors, away from cameras / news coverage. If you watch the Newtonite 17 minute video of all the North kids outside, it’s really powerful and uplifting.
I was at the NNHS walk out. Very well done. I was referencing the Newton Patch had quotes from students saying NSHS “moved it indoors for weather” and they were disappointed feeling they were being kept from sight.
I chatted with the students who organized the Newton South rally, two pretty savvy freshmen, but they said they had a lot of support from the administration. There were hundreds of students in the field house for it, but only one standing outside in the name of civil disobedience.
Here’s what I ended up writing: https://patch.com/massachusetts/newton/newton-students-rally-chanting-enough-enough-inside