HOLLYWOOD, FLA. (WSVN) - A South Broward High School senior has been suspended for handing out flyers around campus advertising a climate change protest.
Elijah Ruby, 17, is now using his suspension to participate in the Global Youth Climate Strike in Fort Lauderdale, the very demonstration advertised on the flyer that his school took issue with.
“They brought me into the office, and they externally suspended me,” Ruby said.
For weeks, Ruby has been handing out flyers, spreading the word about the global climate strike.
The Broward County School District said they support students’ rights to express their views during peaceful and lawful protest, but Ruby’s flyers “misrepresented the walkout as a district-sanctioned event,” probably because the flyers said “BROWARD COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS” in all caps.
Ruby said that’s just so the kids knew where to be for the strike.
“What they really were concerned about was that how this says ‘Broward County Public Schools,'” Ruby said, “when it wasn’t a trick or anything, it’s in front of the Broward County Public Schools building, so it’s just descriptive.”
The district released a statement saying, “Had the student reprinted and distributed the flyer without the misleading impression that the district was organizing the strike, the administration would not have taken disciplinary action.”
“I was told initially that I would actually have all my senior privileges, including prom and homecoming — those things — taken away,” Ruby said.
Now, the district said those activities have not been affected.
Suspension or not, Ruby’s parents said they are proud of him.
“He’s been an activist for a while, and he has these beliefs that he’s willing to stand up for,” Ruby’s father Ben Ruby said. “We’re very proud of him.”
The district said they support the students and what they were protesting about, but they took issue with the design of the initial flyer.
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