Some New Jersey high schoolers say they've been at the receiving end of death threats and calls for their expulsion from school for simply walking out of school to show support for Palestine.

Organizers from West Orange and Teaneck High Schools recently held walkouts with around 100 participants at each.

Now they are facing consequences they contend are more severe than cutting class for other reasons.

And the students said there are more limitations placed on pro-Palestine speech than other political speech.

And their schools and communities.

Hannah Gross our education and child welfare writer, has reaction from students and joins me to discuss.

So Hannah tell me, what types of threats are these students receiving?

Yeah.

So, I mean, on the most extreme end, some of these students are receiving death threats and these are coming from people online, like via text message WhatsApp.

So by unnamed people, basically.

And they've also been receiving calls for them to be doxxed, which would be like their information names address those things shared online without their permission, calls for them to be suspended or even expelled from school.

When we think about this type of pushback, it's not just from their peers.

I understand some of these consequences put forth are also by school administrators.

Yeah, I would say most of it is not coming from peers.

It's coming from adults.

A lot of adults in the community on different Facebook groups or people online who found the students numbers and are texting them threats from adults.

Yeah, adults, they said.

Most of the pushback has really been coming from adults, not students.

And within the schools in West Orange at least.

The school did push for the protests to initially be delayed, and they say that was to promote student safety and make sure they could have the adequate amount of security on hand.

The students also say that some of the push backs they they're facing from the schools after the protests have already occurred are more severe than students who might have cut class for other reasons, such as past protests, or if you're just missing class because you don't want to be there that day.

And maybe you left school early.

Do you feel like, you know, I think actually it's important we clarify the ages of these students because they're minors.

Yeah.

I mean, most of the students I spoke to were under 18.

So they're just teenagers who are standing up for what they believe in and facing a lot of consequences and pushback as a result.

I read in your article I think this is really interesting.

One student said if this was a pro-Israel walkout, I feel like it wouldn't be postponed or had any pushback.

Are some schools allowing pro-Israel protests and not pro-Palestinian?

So there haven't been any pro-Israel protests at school that are similar to these two pro-Palestinian protests where I covered.

No school walkouts that I'm aware of.

But there have been community protests normally organized and led by adults in which students are participating.

So it's hard to compare the two of them because one is happening on school time, on school grounds, and the other one is more of a community event.

Here's the thing.

Do you think students feel like this is a violation of free speech?

Yeah, I mean, students have expressed concerns about free speech because they believe their speech is being treated differently because of the message that they're conveying, that they're expressing support for Palestinians, that it's being treated differently than, say, in 2018 when students walked out of school as part of the March for Our Lives or protest for Black Lives Matter or some other causes that have led to student activism in the past.

And then lastly, what's being done with students who are being threatened?

I mean, how are these schools handling this?

Yeah, I mean, the school said they're committed to protecting their students safety.

And I know some of the local police departments are also investigating these threats.

So they say they are taking them seriously.

Yeah.

So there are consequences for people who are doing this.

All right, Hannah, thank you so much.

Thank you for having me.