On the eve of the March 14 National School Walkout, Mark Morawski, a father of two children in the Saucon Valley School District addressed the school board, during their meeting.

Morawski said he strongly believes the school district should be apolitical and focus on education. Morawski asked the board, “What criteria is the district going to apply to determine what protests they support and allow during school hours?”

The response from Superintendent Dr. Craig Butler was, “We are taking one at a time.”

Solicitor Mark W. Fitzgerald explained the district will continue as usual based on case law and will not change anything with students’ rights to free speech.

Board member Susan Baxter wanted clarification from Fitzgerald on having an actual policy in place. Fitzgerald called this walkout “unprecedented” and said he would “caution against a policy.”

For many, the question remains, are there going to be more protests? If so, will it become a pattern?

The Women’s March has initiated this National School Walkout under the “Women’s March Youth Empower.” This is the same Women’s March that protested in Washington DC and across the country Jan. 21, 2017 during Donald Trump’s first day in office. According to womensmarch.com, they are encouraging students to do another protest on April 20. Their website is quoted as saying “PLEASE DO BOTH & MORE!”

The planned April 20 national walkout and possible future walkouts are not lost on school administration. In speaking of the April 20 event, Dr. Butler stated, “we’re concerned about that.” Butler further noted the district is having discussions and believes the current event is enough. He explained, for ongoing events “to disrupt instruction or for it be a fairly common event is not in my view what we should do in the future.”

Another issue raised was parental approval. Board member Shamim Pakzad strongly believes it’s the parent’s discretion to grant permission or “opt in” before a student can walk out of school. He used the example of the school requiring a signed note from the parent when students go to a zoo. In the case of this walkout, the school did not require permission from the parent, but would only prohibit the student from walking out if the parent chose to “opt out” by expressing it in writing to school administration. Pakzad further stated parents have given rights to the school for education purposes and “anything outside of that, I think they should proactively declare that consent as opposed to making that consent assumed.”

Questions were also raised about what specifically was going to take place at the high school level during the protest. According to high school Principle Beth Guarriello, there were three options for students. They include remaining in class and continuing with instruction, choosing to participate inside the building by walking the halls and congregating by the cafeteria where 17 candles would be lit in the courtyard for the 17 victims in the Florida shooting or the third option was to walk out of the building and congregate by the flagpole inside a cordoned off area.

For the students who leave the classroom, security will be set up to oversee the two groups. Security will consist of 5 police officers, 13 teachers and 6 administrators. According to Guarriello, “the entire Lower Saucon Police” will be used.

In addition to the high school, the district decided to include both the elementary and middle school to participate in their own activities inside the schools during the 17 minute timeframe.