CLEVELAND -In Hudson, students recently walked out of high school to criticize the firing of a popular principal, a protest that ended with police using pepper spray to calm some in the large crowd.
In Cuyahoga Falls, 200 students left class last week to voice displeasure about teacher layoffs.
It's our education
and if they expect us to get it they have to give us some say over how we get it said Nicolle Hansen, an 18-year-old junior at Cuyahoga Falls High School who walked out last week.
Some experts say that in this Internet, cable-TV driven age, students across the nation are speaking up and making an impact -a difference from some more silent generations past.
Because their voices are heard in media and politics
there's an expectation they will be heard in all other institutions
said Linda Waldron, an assistant sociology professor who studies youth culture and education at Christopher Newport University in Virginia.
In Massachusetts, student outcries in Boston got the attention of the governor and halted the deportation of a high school teacher. A Vermont school board recently bowed to student protests and renewed the contract of a teacher it planned to let go.
Last month in Hudson, about 400 students walked out in support of principal Roger Howard, whose contract was not renewed for what the school board repeatedly has said were confidential reasons.
Police used pepper spray to break up that protest. After that, large groups of parents and students attended board meetings to contest the decision. Students created a Web site devoted to the cause that outlined their stand. They started producing T-shirts, bumper stickers and a set of talking points.
Last Monday, more than 200 people packed a high school library for a last-ditch effort to save the principal's job. The board was unmoved and several students, many of whom had just turned 18, vowed to oust their elected officials in the next election.
We talked to the board for a good two hours
and five minutes later they unanimously voted not to renew his contract
said Jeff Lee, a Hudson High senior. They just did it then and there. They showed no signs of considering our opinion. said.
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