Suspended Fredericton high school students not punished over protest

Some of the students who walked out of a Fredericton high school on Monday over the school district’s dress code have been suspended.

The suspended students are members of a group called the Fredericton Youth Feminists. On Friday they received emails that they had been suspended. The suspensions range in length from three to five days. Students also say they could miss graduation and prom ceremonies because of it.

The group walked out of class on Monday afternoon, calling for the Anglophone School District to remove the area’s dress code and replace it with a sexual assault policy.

"We're arguing that our education is more important than what we're wearing,” says group member Sorcha Beirne. “Our safety at school needs to be thought of as much as our education does and we're being told, you can’t come to classes for three days to a week because you speak up about these issues."

But Fredericton high school principal Shane Thomas says the suspension are not related to Monday’s protest. Over 50 students left class on Monday, but only a fraction of them have been suspended.

"There were no students who received any consequences who left class and participated in the protest outside,” says Thomas. “Student voice is important and will continue to be important here at FHS. However for the few students who came inside of the school and then fell in conflict of policy 703 obviously we have to deal with that as a different incident."

Policy 703 is the school board’s Positive Learning Environment Policy. Thomas plans to clear up any confusion about the suspension when classes resume on Monday.