KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The unrest in Ferguson is forging a teaching moment. Kansas City Public Schools are using the current event to teach students about the power of expression.
The district has a plan in place; to keep students and staff safe Tuesday. Part of that plan, are no TV cameras allowed inside the schools. The district wants to make sure no one is distracted.
Another part is Superintendent Dr. Stephen Green making the rounds, visiting high schools like Lincoln College Prep. Dr. Green says he wants to make sure a healthy dialogue about what’s happening in Ferguson, is happening inside the classrooms.
Lincoln College Prep is the same school where just last week, several students took part in a silent protest. Governor Nixon was giving a speech at the school, when the students held up their hands as a sign of surrender. The students were disciplined in accordance to the district’s code of conduct. They spent a Saturday in detention.
The ACLU responded to the district’s punishment, saying the students should be applauded for exercising their free speech in a respectful, peaceful and mature manner.
“We remain ever vigilant in that area, safety and security’s high on our radar screen; a priority for me as a superintendent, anyway. And so we want to make sure that there is a safe way, and we believe there is a safe way to still have that expression. But not just chaotic and out of control,” said Dr. Stephen Green, KC Public Schools Superintendent.
Dr. Green goes on to say, the students who got detention spent their time talking about what happened in Ferguson. It was a civic forum of sorts to talk about civil rights.
