--- title: Texas Superintendent Says Protesting Students to be Punished description: Needville ISD Superintendent Curtis Rhodes wrote a letter saying that students who participate in protests will be suspended. canonical: https://time.com/5171089/texas-school-threatens-suspend-students-protest/ author: Sarah Gray article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-22T22:18:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T19:24:13.488Z article:section: Politics og:title: Texas School Threatens to Suspend Any Students Who Leave Class to Protest og:description: Critics are weighing in og:url: https://time.com/5171089/texas-school-threatens-suspend-students-protest/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9353b2d9aadacbd0/69892872cf40a8900fc4b6a2/gettyimages-922306296.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Students Protest outside White House for Gun Control after Parkland Mass Shooting og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Texas School Threatens to Suspend Any Students Who Leave Class to Protest twitter:description: Critics are weighing in twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9353b2d9aadacbd0/69892872cf40a8900fc4b6a2/gettyimages-922306296.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Texas School Threatens to Suspend Any Students Who Leave Class to Protest > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Sarah Gray](https://time.com/author/sarah-gray/) ## Sarah Gray Feb 22, 2018 10:18 PM UTC  WASHINGTON, USA - February 21: A student holds a placard as hundreds of students call for greater gun control laws as they protest outside of the White House in Washington, USA on February 21, 2018\. Protests led mostly by young students were sparked around the country calling for greater gun control after the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla. where 17 people were killed. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) WASHINGTON, USA - February 21: A student holds a placard as hundreds of students call for greater gun control laws as they protest outside of the White House in Washington, USA on February 21, 2018\. Protests led mostly by young students were sparked around the country calling for greater gun control after the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla. where 17 people were killed. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)Anadolu Agency—Getty Images by [Sarah Gray](https://time.com/author/sarah-gray/) ## Sarah Gray Feb 22, 2018 10:18 PM UTC A school district in Texas has been the focus of criticism, after a letter from the [Needville Independent School District’s superintendent](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2018/02/21/a-texas-school-superintendent-threatens-to-suspend-students-protesting-gun-laws-but-thats-not-legal/?utm%5Fterm=.129ff2691de5) Curtis Rhodes warning against student protests spread on social media. The letter addressed last week’s school shooting in Parkland, Florida that left 17 dead, saying that the district is “sensitive to violence in schools.” It also states that there is a “‘movement’ attempting to stage walkouts/disruptions of the school,” and cautions that if students in the Needville school district, located 40 miles southwest of Houston, participate in protests they’ll receive a three-day suspension. “Please be advised that the Needville ISD will not allow a student demonstration during school hours for any type of protest or awareness!!” the letter states. “Should students choose to do so, they will be suspended from school for 3 days and face all the consequences that come along with an out of school suspension. Life is all about choices and every choice has a consequence whether it be positive or negative. We will discipline no matter if it is one, fifty, or five hundred students involved.” Following the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, students across the country have been organizing demonstrations to call for school safety, gun control, and access to mental health services. Lie-ins, walkouts, and protests in front of the White House were held over the past week. Nation-wide protests have been planned including the [March 24 March For Our Lives](http://time.com/5167102/march-for-our-lives-parkland-school-shooting-protest/) march on Washington and [national school walkouts on March 14 and April 20](http://time.com/5165794/student-protests-walkouts-florida-school-shooting/). The message was originally posted on the Needville High School Facebook page. Screenshots of the letter were shared via social media. > [](https://twitter.com/AntonioArellano/status/966352163143405568) The school’s Facebook [page has since been taken down](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/texas/2018/02/21/texas-superintendent-promises-suspend-students-leave-school-protest). TIME reached out to Superintendent Rhodes and will update this post once we’ve heard back. After the message spread on social media, critics wondered if the threat of punishment for protesting violated the students’ First Amendment rights. > [](https://twitter.com/AnthonyMKreis/status/966416550046572544) “It’s a quintessential First Amendment violation, and most Americans have an instinct about that,” Georgetown law professor Heidi Li Feldman [told The Washington](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2018/02/21/a-texas-school-superintendent-threatens-to-suspend-students-protesting-gun-laws-but-thats-not-legal/?utm%5Fterm=.f9bf804536c1) _Post._ “What’s really weird about this is that they announced they will suspend people over the content of their off-campus protest. Content-based restrictions on speech are anathema to the First Amendment. 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