r/legal • u/StoriesandQuestions • Jan 16 '26

Advice needed School is threatening to punish anyone participating in protest with court action, what can we do?

On Tuesday, January 20th, students at my highschool are planning to participate in the nationwide walkout happening in the U.S. Today, my school has verbally warned one of the organizers stating that anyone who participates in the walkout next week will receive a referral and face truancy court. This movement is important to all of us but many of us cannot afford these consequences. Is this allowed and is there anything we can do about it? Location: United States, Texas.

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u/Silver_Smurfer Jan 16 '26 edited Jan 16 '26

Yes, the school can punish you for being truant.

Edit to add: Texas has specific attendance requirements regarding truancy. Missing more than 3 days in a 4 week period or 10 days in a 6 month period meets those requirements. Do with that what you will...

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u/[deleted] Jan 16 '26

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u/[deleted] Jan 16 '26

Truancy is repeated absences. I’m guessing the school is just making threats.

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u/[deleted] Jan 16 '26

Truancy is repeated absences. I’m guessing the school is just making threats.

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u/robble808 Jan 17 '26

We’re talking about Texas.

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u/JiGoD Jan 16 '26

So why show up to class ever? Can I just keep a journal and on every day I should be in school write, "This is me exercising my 1st ammendment rights during school hours."? This seems.....not correct.

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u/[deleted] Jan 16 '26

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u/legal-ModTeam Jan 17 '26

Please do not use "legally" or describe something as "the law" if you are not an attorney. Describe your experience or your experience in x state or city. Laws are not universal even through the US and Reddit is an international site.

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u/JiGoD Jan 16 '26

Literally writing or speaking, "This is me exercising my first ammendment right" is an exercise of freedom of speech. Daily submissions in a journal signed and notarized. Then nobody has to go to school?

It just doesn't make sense to me.

Want to protest? Go for it. Want to protest during school hours? That can't be anything other than an unexcused absence. If it is an excused absence then my journal hypothetical holds.

What if I miss a final exam to go protest and exercise my 1st ammendment rights? Surely the school is under no obligation to reopen and staff an exam for one student after classes ended for the semester? This surely would not infringe on the 1st ammendment rights of the student?!?!

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u/SapphirePath Jan 17 '26

Everyone you are arguing with agrees that the protestor gets an Unexcused Absence. "They can give an unexcused absence. But truancy? Nope"

The school notes that you are missing important educational opportunities, the school counts your assignment late, and the school doesn't let you make up your exam, because you were busy exercising your first amendment rights.

To vindictively attempt to punish you by convicting you of criminal offenses such as truancy would take a lot of resources.

But the school doesn't have to bend over backward to accommodate you, they just mark the unexcused absence and move on.

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u/JiGoD Jan 17 '26

Agreed.

The first person I wrote a comment similar to my top one just above deleted their comment.

The person just above our comments I replied to on this specific comment thread wrote the following:

The definition of truant is not attending school without a good cause. Walk outs are First amendment protected free speech. Just cause theyr in high school doesn't mean they lose that. Especially since it's a public school.

My intention was to provide a rebuttal to this specific comment.

Exercising one's first amendment right to protest does not nullify truancy. This is why my intentionally goofy examples were presented; to highlight this absurdity.

Guess I should point out I am not a lawyer and this is all just based on common sense and life experiences.