1,100 Downers Grove Students Given Detention For Walkout

The First Amendment protects our right to free speech, but people don't understand is that it only protects your from being jailed. However, you are not free from consequence. That is what many students in Downers Grove are finding out today, but they see it as an honor rather than a consequence.

“If you read their accounts in the school newspaper, you will see our students take great pride in standing up for what they believe in. Many feel that a detention for leaving class is a small price to exercise their rights and draw attention to their cause. When several of our student leaders heard that some schools were not assigning consequences, they shared with administration they didn’t feel this was a good idea. Students believed that in order to be taken seriously, they should show they are committed enough to receive a consequence,” Thiele said in an email to CBS 2.

Personally this seems more of a failure on the school systems part for not working with the students to find a strategy they could all agree on. Will this affect future protests? Honestly, I seriously doubt it.