Barrington High School Students Walk Off Campus Protesting Budget Cuts, Other Political Issues
One student arrested after group marched toward downtown area and student sat on roadway near railroad tracks.
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Around 9:00a.m. on March 31, about 100 Barrington High School students gathered to stage a protest over the more than $2 million cuts recently made to the school district budget.
“I am definitely against the budget cuts but I was unsure if a protest was worth skipping class for so after second hour I went to the staircase to see the turnout and it was huge,” said Kelsey Kober, Barrington High School junior.
Kober said teachers told students if they didn’t go back to class they would get an unexcused absence, which would result in a detention.
“At this point I decided to go to third hour because we were reviewing for a math quiz and I needed some extra help,” said Kober.
The group shrunk to approximately 50 students who then headed outside; the focus then shifted to include legalization of marijuana, recent labor issues in Wisconsin and U.S. military involvement, according to Steve McWilliams, principal.
The remaining students marched east on Main Street toward the downtown area.
“At the Union Pacific Railroad crossing on Highway 59 just north of Main Street, one student made the unfortunate decision to sit on the roadway,” said McWilliams.
Since Barrington High School is a closed campus, students are barred from leaving the school’s campus unless they are with a parent or have parent permission, said McWilliams.
The student, whose name is not being released, was arrested by Barrington Police for unlawful assembly, violating daytime curfew and for resisting arrest.
After the arrest was made, the remaining group of students walked back to the high school campus and arrived just after 10:00a.m.
Students willingly gave administrators their names and McWilliams said they will now be subject to disciplinary measures for leaving campus without permission.
McWilliams said there were no other incidents and classes continued normally for the remainder of the school day.
Comments (9)
that is not true i was there he was laying on 59 stoping traffic we all got 2 saturdays just because we want to be herd. the only reason i went is because they are trying to cancel gymnastics and hockey at are school .just so some superintendent can get richer . he gets a 6% raise . i would love to talk to this man
you soo weren't there!
Sadly, Alex, but based on your email, you've missed far too many classes already.
Alex, perhaps if you had gone to class instead of wasting the money and resources to reel you all in, you would have learned to use punctuation, grammar, spelling, and capitalization. It seems to me, they need to cut funding on extracurriculars so they can focus on the education, as you have just proven, it looks like it is much needed.
and there was closer to 200 students and closer to 100 walked out they only caught 50. and one more thing the leader of this "protest " was giving a 40 min long speech about the cuts. when some kid yelled legalize marijuana and then he started to talk about it
We have every right to protest if some guy get a raise and we don't get many for our sports. That man should just be happy he has a job. My mother has to work 3 jobs just to put a roof over my head and food on the table.
TLeonard@barrington220.org, write him Alex, He reads his emails and he will respond.
Here is the student NOT resisting arrest and many sat (bad choice I and they know now). That student arrested was (as all kids) obeying orders. Video shows that he was not even facing the officer he was grabbed by behind. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2ZUTGVuSJ0
I was there too! And Emilio did not resist the arrest! He never tryed to even talk about the legalization of marijuana till some stupid kid yelled it out, but he was only playing about it! All we wanted was to get heard! More Than 50 students walked out!
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