Arkansas Students Get Paddled For Participating In Walkout — WTF Is Happening

Arkansas high school paddled students for participating in walkout

Corporal punishment at school is supposed to be a thing of the long-gone past. Or, so we thought. A high school in Arkansas punished three students by hitting them with a paddle — all for participating in National Walkout Day.

The punishment was doled out to the only three students who walked out of Greenbrier High School during a 17 minute nationwide protest for stricter gun laws. One of the students, 17-year-old Wylie Greer, later recounted to his mom what happened after the protest. She, in turn, took to Twitter to share the story.

“My kid and two other students walked out of their rural, very conservative, public school for 17 minutes today,” Jerusalem Greer wrote. “They were given two punishment options. They chose corporal punishment. This generation is not playing around. #walkout.”

Wow. Just…wow. If you’re wondering whether paddling students is at all legal — unfortunately it is. Newsweek reported that corporal punishment is still allowed in some Arkansas school districts, though parents must give permission for the students to be hit.

Wylie told Cosmopolitan that he chose the paddle over two days of suspension, and was “swatted” twice by his dean. “I understood what had to happen, and was prepared for that,” he said.

Don’t worry, you’re not the only one who wants to immediatly call up Greenbrier High School for a stern chat about how completely, ridiculously not okay this is. Social media was buzzing with complete disgust over what happened to these three students.

Meanwhile, Greer remained stoic about what happened to him and his friends, and emphasized how important the walkout was to him.

“I walked because I have seen the debate around gun control die and get shut down so many times,” he said. “People said it would be different after Sandy Hook, and it wasn’t. They said it would be different after Pulse, and it wasn’t. They say it is going to be different this time, after Parkland, and I want it to be. If walking out brings the debate back to peoples minds, if it keeps the victims of Parkland from dying a second death in our minds, then I am willing to accept any consequences.”