WATERLOO, N.Y. — The Waterloo Central School District says some teachers and students are facing consequences from recent protests held at Waterloo High School.
A demonstration Monday followed a similar one on Friday because a teacher allegedly made an insensitive comment about suicide last week.
A dozen students at the high school held a sit-in in the school lobby today. Soon after, the district says participating students were told they were suspended for five days. Some were placed in in-school suspension.
“Honestly, in the long run, it’s worth it for me,” a student who walked out to be picked up by his parents said. “Yes, I may have never been suspended before, but as long as it's for the correct reasons, I'm OK with it."
The alleged comment about suicide has sparked outrage among students and parents, especially since a middle schooler in the district, and sibling of one of the high school's students, took his own life in June.
Students though say the issue is much bigger than the comment.
"We created this for a safe and a change for our schools," an 11th grade student said. "A lot of the kids here are scared to come here."
A 10th grade student added, "We're not backing down until there's a change. It's not fair. There are many kids who battle with suicidal thoughts and their voices aren't heard. How they're feeling isn't heard. For a teacher to say disrespectful things like that, even if it's a joke -- you shouldn't be joking about things like that."
Some parents like Joshua La Mar and Trina Carter came to support their children demonstrating outside of the school by bringing them food and water as they were locked out.
On Saturday though, the parents received letters saying they are not allowed on campus until June of 2022.
“You can ban me," said Carter. "I’m still going to be here. It’s not going to stop us. We’re going to raise our voices and make sure things get done correctly.”
It wasn’t just high schoolers taking part in the protest. Carter, the mother of an eighth-grader at the nearby middle school, says her daughter is a victim of bullying and racism. Her daughter walked over to join the protest on Friday and the sit-in on Monday.
“She snuck out of the school some way, somehow, to join the protest,” said Carter. “I support these kids and I support my daughter 100%.”
La Mar says he spoke to Superintendent Terri Davis Friday demanding more action, but says he hasn't heard anything since his suspension letter.
"This is about the culture at the school district that needs to change and then she told me we were missing the point. I walked away," said La Mar. "I feel like the superintendent is just sweeping everything under the rug instead of talking to the student body, maybe even pulling them all together, just to come together as a community and speak about the issues."
On Saturday, the Waterloo Central School District shared a statement on its website saying that students on Friday disrupted the school, students and parents at the protest violated the code of conduct and that it takes mental health and bullying seriously. It also said the teacher's alleged comment last week is being investigated.
In part, the statement read:
"Students shouted obscenities at the administrators who were outside supervising them. Students marched around the high school and middle school campus pounding on windows and shouting, causing a substantial disruption to the instruction that was going on in the building. Students inside the school who were not protesting outside or who came inside because they were made to feel uncomfortable with the tone the protest took, shared with teachers they were being berated and bullied by the student protestors outside of school. Many of these students expressed concern about returning to school on Monday to face these classmates."
The full statement can be seen here.
However, students and parents do not feel the school is really addressing the issue. Now, the parents involved in the situation say they are working to get a lawyer and file a civil suit against the district for how it handled the situation.
Parents and students say they plan to continue to protest and speak out at the school board meeting Wednesday.