Students protest punishment of streaker by staging parade

Students in Wichita, Kansas staged a parade to protest the punishment of a student who streaked through his High School’s gymnasium. The parade, which began wound its way through Wichita and ended in the High School’s parking lot, had about 100 participants and dozens of spectators.Students pilled in pickup trucks, hay racks, trailers and even a red Corvette. They wore T-shirts and signs which read, “We ‘love’ streakers,” “Free the Streaker,” and “Underwear is overrated.” The students then continued their protest at the local City Hall, where the streaker is standing trial for disorderly conduct.

The parade’s organizer, a senior at the high school, summed up the student body’s reaction by saying, “if the other side [the administration] can make way too big a thing out of this, we can, too.” The administration punished the streaker with an in-school suspension and will forbid him from attending the prom or walking in his graduation.

Protests will become increasingly more common as high schools continue to inflict outrageous punishments and maintain zero-tolerance policies. You must be ready to protest as soon as you hear of a student’s unfair treatment. Only by protesting will you make your administration reconsider or refrain from unfair punishments.

Because of this parade in Wichita, Kansas, the local high school administrators have to answer numerous calls from the press and unhappy parents. Next time they have to punish a streaker, maybe the administration will make detention as the punishment rather than risk enduring another parade.

Since the streaker is not allowed to go to the school prom, perhaps the parade organizer could also organize a prom that is not organized by the school. The students could then boycott the school’s prom and go to the alternative, private prom. As a bonus, the students would not have to endure traditionally strict government school proms that often don’t allow students to leave and return.