ST. LOUIS (KTRS) The ACLU is blasting a decision by Hazelwood School District officials to suspend several students who walked out of school to support their union teachers. Dozens of students at Hazelwood West High School students left class for more than an hour Monday to protest the district’s refusal to renegotiate a contract with union teachers. Executive Director of the ACLU of Missouri, Jeffrey Mittman, says, “We should encourage young people to participate in democracy – not punish them for thoughtfully and peacefully expressing their First Amendment rights as the students at Hazelwood West High School did.” Mittman points to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling nearly 50 years ago in Tinker v. Des Moines that students do not, “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports students were told Tuesday they would be suspended for five days for disrupting school and causing traffic problems.