Police usher protesting students out of Idaho Capitol | Education | Idaho Statesman
Boise Police Department and Idaho State Police officers ushered protesting students out of the state Capitol on Monday afternoon, after roughly 150 students demonstrating against school superintendent Tom Luna's education-reform proposals began chanting in the rotunda.
With students on the three floors shouting "Kill the Bill," the noise reached every corner of the Capitol. Officers escorted the students down the steps, out of the building and across Jefferson St.
"It was just getting a little out of hand. It was distrubing and regular business could not proceed," said ISP Capt. Brian Zimmerman. "They've been very cooperative. They've followed our directions. They can be anywhere they want in this public building, they just have to be a little bit more civil."
Students, mostly from nearby Boise High, began gathering in the morning at the Capitol. For the first few hours, the students sat quietly. Students from schools around the state "walked out" this morning in opposition to Luna's education-reform proposals. Students from Boise, Meridian, Nampa, Caldwell, Pocatello, Idaho Falls and American Falls have walked out of classes. [...]
I'm thrilled to see politically active students. I'm disappointed to see this, "'If this bill goes through, it will ruin future education,' said Meridian senior Leslie Santos. 'They're trying to change something that doesn't need to be changed.'" It's unlikely that any system of education is so perfect that it couldn't stand some updating from time to time. We don't like to change when we don't have to, and it's slow coming even when we do want it, but right now we have to, and it's important that our priorities are appropriate in doing so. Opening doors of opportunity for learning and restructuring the learning environment doesn't mean fewer teachers. It means less cost to get a wider variety of teaching and learning styles in proximity with one another and make resource-sharing easier and more efficient so pay levels don't have to change except where they've become inappropriate, and so that more people find more resources that help them, individually, reach their maximum potential (both as teachers and students). Also, those who teach to pay the bills will have more time and opportunities to pursue the things that stimulate them to want to share their knowledge, instead of having it be the either/or proposition it often is now in which the demands of trying to teach within the current system become so overwhelming there's no time left to pursue knowledge for oneself. But I'm thrilled to see politically active students on any side of any issue, and I hope in the end these folks find their concerns have been addressed and all sides can find some equinamity.
Also, it's really nice to see that these protesters were treated with the same respect they're being asked to give.
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