Summary

Last month, teens at schools across the country staged walkouts to protest school district responses to the recent wave of omicron-variant COVID. One such school were protest took place was John F. Kennedy High School in Silver Spring, Maryland. This coverage of the protest was produced by John F. Kennedy high school students Sofia Alicea and Kissiah Landham as part of NewsHour's Student Reporting Labs.

Five Facts

• When and Where did student walkouts take place over claims of lax COVID safety rules?


• What concerns do the students interviewed in this piece have about the rules at their school?


• How are students suggesting the school district change or clarify its rules because of the omicron variant?


• Why did many of the students that took part in the walkout want to switch to virtual learning for two weeks?


• Who makes decisions about COVID safety at schools like John F. Kennedy High School?

Focus Questions

Who do you think should determine COVID rules and other safety guidelines in schools? Should parents have a say? Students? Media literacy: What perspective do you think it adds to have student journalists cover the walkout at their own school, as is the case in this piece?

For More

For more on how mask mandates and other school COVID rules are changing across the country, see this story:

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