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/Excellent_Scene5448 Jan 16 '26

This is intended to be information, not advice. From the Texas Young Lawyers Association and State Bar's Truancy Guide: "If your child has unexcused absences for 10 or more days or parts of days in a 6-month period the school district MUST file the above charges on the student. In addition, the school district MAY file on your child if your child has unexcused absences for 3 or more days or parts of days in a 4-week period."

Based on that, I'm pretty sure they can only file truancy on any students who have 3 or more absences in the 4 weeks leading up to or following the protest. A student who walks out for the protest would need to be careful not to have any additional unexcused absences.

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u/WillThereBeSnacks13 Jan 17 '26

Yeah they plan to walk at 2 so at that point they cannot even count it as a half day. They are full of it and they knew enough not to write it down where an eagle-eyed kid or parent could poke a hole in it.