Students in Virginia's largest school district will now get one day off every year to engage in protests
One of the nation's biggest school districts, Fairfax County in Virginia is letting pupils take a day off every year for protests and other "civic engagement activities".
The new policy comes in response to rising student activism around a broad spectrum of issues — from stricter gun laws to action on climate change.
The school board of Fairfax County said the policy will allow students from seventh to 12th grade in the district's public schools to properly exercise their civil rights. Fairfax County Public Schools, one of the country's biggest school districts and the largest in Virginia, is the first to adopt this policy.
The policy will affect approximately 188,000 children who study in public schools in the district.
Fairfax School Board member, Ryan McElveen, who introduced the policy, said students' "civic engagement activities" could include not just marches but also sit-ins and lobbying, outlining the different forms of non-violent student activism.
Speaking about the development, he said: "I think we're setting the stage for the rest of the nation with this. It's a dawning of a new day in student activism, and school systems everywhere are going to have to be responsive to it."
School spokeswoman for Fairfax County Public Schools Lucy Caldwell confirmed that students in the permitted grades will be allowed one leave per school year for "civic engagement activities", starting January 27, 2020.
Speaking about the policy, Caldwell told local media that "the school board felt that this was something that could be formalized and wanted to put into writing. There were many students who were engaged and have been engaged and it was decided that it was time to go ahead and put into place."
The policy could encourage students to actively steer the youth-led conversation around issues they engage with and help them to be more engaged citizens in the future.