Hundreds of students staged a walkout at a high school in Florida today in protest against a bill that would limit discussion of LGBTQ issues in schools throughout the state.
Will Larkins, a junior at the high school and one of the students who helped organize the protest, said that the walkouts would continue if the legislation moved forward or was eventually passed into law.. “There were walkouts all last week. This is going to continue. If this passes, there will be protests everywhere.”
A student who took part in a separate walkout, which took place last week at Flagler Palm Coast High School in Palm Coast, Florida,Jack Petocz, a junior who helped organize the walkout against the anti-LGBTQ bill, said that the principal of the school told him ahead of the event that he wasn’t allowed to hand out rainbow flags.
The school’s principal questioned “the intentions of our protest, asking if pride flags were relevant to opposition to the bill,”. “I decided to move forward and handed the flags to other student organizers for distribution at the event.” After the protest concluded, Petocz said that he was called into the principal’s office yet again, and suspended for being “disrespectful and openly advocating against staff.” The junior says that he plans to speak to his family’s lawyer about the events.
Experts predict that the “Don’t Say Gay” bill will have a detrimental effect on students if it is passed into law.