Students Given Detention For National Walkout Stage Peaceful Protest in Memory of Parkland Victims

A group of 46 students at a Pennsylvania high school who were given detention for participating in the national school walkout served their detention on March 17, but not without protest — the group linked arms and, wearing the names of the Parkland victims on their clothes, participated in an unprecedented kind of sit-in.

Pennridge High School in Pennsylvania issued detention slips to 225 students who walked out on March 14 as part of the national demonstration against gun violence that involved tens of thousands of students across the US. The March 17 detention was just the first of several Saturday-morning detentions, which have been staggered to accommodate the large number of students who participated in the walkout.

As seen in a video shared to Twitter by @NeverAgainPenn, the students — who call themselves Pennridge 225 — sat on the school's cafeteria floor in complete silence. The peaceful protest was organized by Pennridge senior Anna Sophie Tinney, who told The Morning Call it was disappointing the school wouldn't allow the students to protest, especially given the school historically teaches and praises the bravery of activists, including Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. The Pennridge 225 weren't the only ones who chose to stage a sit-in on Saturday, though — dozens of community members showed their support for the students by standing outside the school with signs.

Pennridge is just one of many schools that issued punishments for students who walked out on March 14, including a school in Arkansas where a student alleges that students were paddled for having participated in the walkout.