On Tuesday, March 3, the Kansas Senate voted in favor of an amendment inserted into Senate Bill 315 that is aimed at discouraging students from participating in walk-outs during school hours. This would be accomplished through a dual-pronged approach of fines and instructional requirements. According to the Kansas Reflector, each day a district experienced a walkout would not count for instructional minutes. In addition, the district in question would face a fine of the annual base salary of the superintendent per school day, which ranges from around $118,000 to $200,000. This fine would be paid to the state treasury.
According to the Kansas Reflector, this amendment focuses particularly on students participating in walkouts without excused absences and the administrators of each district when they don’t “enforce school attendance laws and policies,” by disciplining students for participating. In addition, districts found to have staff encouraging walkouts could face further penalties.
Sen. Cindy Holscher, D-Overland Park, said she was apprehensive that this amendment could contradict the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the 1969 case Tinker vs. Des Moines, which focuses on First Amendment rights of students at school. According to uscourts.gov, the Supreme Court’s majority ruled that students and teachers are not required to “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”
However, Sen. Beverly Gossage, R-Eudora, said students were able to exercise their rights outside of school hours. “This is not a matter of free speech,” Gossage said. “School gets out really early. You have plenty of time to do something like this after school, no matter what it is [you] are protesting.”
Of the 40 state senators in Kansas, 31 are Republican and 9 are Democrats. For this amendment, all 21 votes came from the Republican Party, while the opposition was split between 9 Republicans and 9 Democrats.
The amendment will now pass to the House of Representatives and eventually to Gov. Laura Kelley. If she signs it, the bill will go into law, but if she vetoes it, it will return to the legislature. There, lawmakers could override her veto with a two-thirds vote in both chambers.
