Views expressed in opinion columns are the authors’ own.
Students in Maryland have a lot to be mad about. Whether it’s dilapidated buildings, school shootings or a culture of violence against marginalized students, without accountability, we face daily threats to our well-being and success, often feeling like we have no means to change the status quo.
In Montgomery County, student activists are taking a stand. Earlier this year, spurred by the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, students across the country organized the March for Our Lives to protest gun violence in all its forms. Montgomery County students like Matt Post, the former student member of the board of education, and Brenna Levitan, a Montgomery Blair student, not only walked out of school to attend the march and speak at the rally, but formed the advocacy group “MoCo Students for Change” to continue their work.
Now, those student leaders are advocating for their right to have absences for engaging in peaceful protest to be counted as excused. At its meeting last week, the Montgomery County Board of Education considered a revision to its attendance policy that would allow up to three excused absences for participating in civic events, provided the student has the approval of their parent and principal as well as a legitimate sponsoring organization.
Student organizers argue civic engagement contributes to their academic success rather than impeding it, and they’re right. Students can’t effectively learn in environments that actively threaten their well-being; they deserve the right to organize to improve the quality of their learning. Activism and organizing provide students with increasingly necessary skills such as managing social media, building coalitions, articulating clear and succinct messages, and ensuring accountability. Those skills will serve them not only in college and their careers, but throughout their lives, making them strong citizens who are capable of advocating for what they believe in and fighting for justice.
Activism provides endless rewards for those who engage, but it can also be discouraging, scary and exhausting. The challenges are even more daunting for students of color, who face the brunt of poor school conditions, and for whom unexcused absences or missed work carry harsher consequences and make them targets for unfair disciplinary action or poor grades.
Excusing absences abates these concerns and creates room for marginalized students from all backgrounds to engage on the same level as the student member of the board or the SGA president. With excused absences for activism, students won’t need to choose between academics, activism, and their personal, mental or physical well-being. They can work on all three at the same time.
High-achieving high school students in Montgomery County aren’t the only ones with issues to protest, nor should they be. To be truly inclusive, the same right should be extended to students across the state in all levels of education, including at the University of Maryland.
This university has already taken some steps in the right direction, announcing in February that “non-academic disciplinary action” resulting from “peaceful and respectful protests” won’t hurt high school students’ chances of being admitted. The university also actively promotes non-partisan engagement in electoral politics: The TerpsVote Coalition offers student interns a stipend for working to register voters, and a register to vote button appears on every student’s ELMS page.
Community engagement and social change can start at the ballot box, but by no means does it stop there. The student-led lunch counter protests of the civil rights movement, along with anti-Vietnam War organizing have shown us that peaceful protest and civil disobedience are tactics equally as worthy of our praise and encouragement. Yet student turnout at demonstrations both on and off the campus remains low and discouraging, and student activists are at times actively rejected.
For a university that purports to be “committed to diversity and inclusiveness” and “compelled to address the great societal issues of our time,” following Montgomery County’s lead of excusing absences for student activism seems like a natural next step. Combine empowered student leaders with a supportive and proactive administration, and maybe, just maybe can we turn some of our fearless ideas into reality.
Olivia Delaplaine is a junior government and politics major. She can be reached at odelaplaine15@gmail.com.
