An angry father confronted the principal of his son’s California high school, demanding to know who authorized student and teacher participation in the national walkout on the one-month anniversary of the tragic school shooting in Parkland, Fla. He threatened to sue the school over neglecting his son and allowing students to just leave class.
“I’m going to sue the school district. I already have a lawyer. I wasn’t notified that you were going to allow this,” the irate father, John Gunn, declared. He posted the confrontation at the Ventura Unified School District school with principal Barbara Boggio on Facebook.
Gunn ranted about two very serious issues. The father asked who had the authority to allow teachers to walk out of class, thereby leaving students abandoned and derailing education. He also persistently asked why the students were allowed to leave class and thereby skip out on their education.
“I want to know who authorized you to tell the teachers that if they want to leave, it’s okay,” the dad asked. “Somebody told the teacher if they want to leave, they can leave.”
By allowing teachers to walk out of class, the principal enabled the children’s guardians to leave them alone. The irate father pointed out that his son sat in class alone while the walkout took place. “So why did my son have to sit in that class — because he didn’t leave — but why wasn’t I notified?”
Secondly, the angry dad demanded to know why the children were allowed to just willy nilly decide to skip out on class. The purpose of school is to teach children, not push a political agenda.
“When do 12-year-olds make decisions? You’re an adult, you’re the school, you’re supposed to teach my child,” the father said. “You don’t influence my child in any which way. Democrat, liberal, Republican, whatever it is. I want it out of the school system.”
“You let 12-year-olds choose?” Gunn asked. “You’re letting 12-year-olds choose what they want to do? Why can’t you just say, ‘No, you can’t go’? They’re 12-year-olds.”
“So, if my kid wants to leave the school right now, just walk out, that’s okay?” the father demanded. At this, the principal said no, but she was unable to provide an adequate explanation for why teachers and students were allowed to walk out in this protest, but not just to skip out on school for any reason.
Gunn told IJR that he called the superintendent of the school, but the superintendent was in a meeting. The school insisted that human resources would get back to the angry father. He has not heard back for three days.
“They should have kept the kids inside the classroom, since they are 12 and 13 years old,” he told IJR. “They shouldn’t be pushing their liberal agenda on kids that know no better.”
“I won’t be making any comments,” Principal Boggio told IJR. The superintendent, Dave Creswell, did not respond to IJR’s request for comment. Watch the video below.
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