Home Scandal and Gossip Hilliard Davidson student suspended for staying in class during walkout

Hilliard Davidson student suspended for staying in class during walkout

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Jacob Shoemaker
Pictured, Ohio, Hilliard Davidson High School senior student, Jacob Shoemaker.
Jacob Shoemaker
Pictured, Ohio, Hilliard Davidson High School senior student, Jacob Shoemaker.

Was Jacob Shoemaker, a Hilliard Davidson High School senior, suspended for refusing to follow political mandate? 

An Ohio student claiming he wanted to remain nonpolitical during national school walkouts over gun violence has been suspended after choosing to stay in a classroom instead of joining protests or the alternative, a study hall.

Suspended for one day was Hilliard Davidson High School senior, Jacob Shoemaker who said school isn’t the place for politics and he wasn’t going to take sides during Wednesday’s walkouts.

Responding to the Shoemaker’s decision to stay put, the school district said it’s responsible for student’s safety and they can’t be supervised.

‘I can only confirm that no student was suspended for not walking out, nor were any suspended for walking out,’ spokesperson Stacie Raterman of Hilliard City Schools said.

Told Shoemaker via ABC6, ‘I really didn’t have a choice here,’

Adding, ‘If you walked out you were with the protest, you were for gun control and anti-gun violence. And if you sat in this pit with all these other people you were pro gun-violence’.

The student said by electing to sit in his classroom alone he chose a neutral option. A position which served to draw attention to what degree student’s be forced to follow mandates.

Reiterated Shoemaker, whose position has ironically become a political one, albeit for different reasons, ‘It’s the least political protest that exists and the thing that I was protesting in politics in the classroom. I feel that it has no place. In a school, in a district, anywhere’. 

Scott Shoemaker
Pictured, Scott Shoemaker, Jake Shoemaker’s father.

Jacob Shoemaker Ohio student: Should school force me to follow political mandates? 

Jacob’s citation for not following instructions was shared online by a friend, prompting a flood of messages to his father.

Scott Shoemaker says some people thought his son was suspended for walking out, and angry comments accumulated, including some that mistook Scott for the principal. He says he also got a couple death threats and had to consider switching phone numbers.

Shoemaker said he warned his son of repercussions. He said he doesn’t think the school punishment was appropriate. That said the father still supports his son’s decision and defends school officials.

Reiterated the father via ABC6, ‘They’re good people. They did what they felt they had to do. I do not agree with the decision and I told them that.’

Responding to the recriminations against his son and the school, Scott Shoemaker took to Facebook where he posted, ‘Thought I was going to have a normal day yesterday until my son’s story (and my old phone number) went viral and media outlets from all over the country started contacting me,’ Scott wrote online.

‘Jacob felt he was forced to make a political decision at school, but refrained. This was not the first time we have had problems with politics in the classroom as many of you are well aware.

‘Proud of my son for sticking to his guns and avoiding politics in the school, although the school and the school district were less than thrilled with his decision and probably the unwanted attention that they are getting for the harsh decision that they made’.

Then again perhaps Hilliard Davidson educators should have made the provision of having teachers remain in the classroom for those students who simply wanted to get on with school.

Jacob Shoemaker was scheduled to return to school on Friday….

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