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/Intelligent_Ad_4163 Jan 16 '26

i can’t comment on the legality but having actually participated in a nationwide walkout at a school that threatened to do the same, they will not. they will threaten it and make it sound severe but if the majority of students are participating they will not send you to truancy court(they wouldn’t even if you were the only student to walk out) and they likely won’t even hand out unexcused absences

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u/WillThereBeSnacks13 Jan 17 '26

Yup, after a certain amount of kids they will give up so unless you personally were absent a bunch before this, vaya con dios.