BINGHAM (NEWS CENTER Maine) — A Maine school district is warning staff and students not to participate in the March 14th national walkout protesting gun violence.
In a letter posted on the School Administrative District 13's website, Superintendent of MSAD 13, Virginia Rebar, says students and staff who join the walkout will be considered absent without permission and say safety is their main concern.
"Students and staff do not have a First Amendment right to disrupt or interrupt the school day for political advocacy."
She says earlier this week school officials held a meeting to discuss the call for a walk out after receiving a legal advisory from attorneys for the school district, based in Somerset County.
"The letter that came about as a recommendation of this leadership group was nothing to do with promoting or not promoting guns," says Rebar. "It has to do with safety concerns regarding our students."
The national walkout comes in the wake of the Feb. 14 shooting in Parkland, Florida, in which 17 people were killed in one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.
Several Parkland students have become increasingly political since the event calling for greater school safety since the deadly attack.