Texas schools threaten students who protest gun violence with suspension

Students in Texas were told they would be suspended if they protest gun violence, on the same day a local 14-year-old was charged over a shooting threat.

In a letter to parents, Curtis Rhodes, the Needville Independent School District’s superintendent, said it would “not allow a student demonstration during school hours for any type of protest or awareness”.

He added: “Should students choose to do so, they will be suspended from school for 3 days and face all the consequences that come along with an out of school suspension.

“Life is all about choices and every choice has a consequence whether it be positive or negative. We will discipline no matter if it is one, fifty, or five hundred students involved. All will be suspended for 3 days and parent notes will not alleviate the discipline.”

The message was also posted on Needville High’s School’s Facebook page, the Houston Chronicle reported. It appeared to have been later deleted.

Parents were also sent the note on Tuesday,

On the same day a student at Needville Junior High School was arrested after allegedly posting an image of a shotgun on Snapchat, with a caption which read, “Don’t come to skoo tm (sic) @needvill”.

The teenager, who has not been named because he is a minor, is being held in juvenile detention centre.

The letter was initially sent in response to planned nationwide student protests in the wake of the Florida school shooting, which claimed the lives of 17 people.

The massacre triggered an outcry from survivors, who have been calling for stricter gun laws to be put in place.

Earlier this week, hundreds of students at a Florida school walked out of their classes and marched towards Stoneman Douglass High School, the scene of the shooting.

A nationwide school walkout is being planned by organisers for 14 March.