(The AEGIS Alliance) – MASTIC BEACH, LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK – A senior high school student is fighting against a controversial decision by his school that suspended him for attending classes in-person because he was scheduled to attend via remote learning.
17-year-old Maverick Stow has been suspended after he walked into William Floyd High School in Mastic Beach and then attended multiple classes even though he wasn’t on the in-person roster for Tuesday. The school has a hybrid learning schedule in place meant to reduce the number of students being crammed into the same classroom due to the coronavirus pandemic.
While Stow attended the class for first-period class, his teacher realized he wasn’t supposed to be there that day and told him to go to the principal’s office. Officials for the school then ordered him to return home, but Stow refused and attended all of his classes in-person, afterward he learned he had been suspended.
Stow told WABC that “I was suspended for five days today for insubordination as a result of wanting to go to school.”
Stow said the punishment was “out of line” and stated students need to learn while at school, not at their home.
The William Floyd School District stood by the decision and in a statement on Wednesday, it noted that its hybrid schedule complies with state guidelines to reduce COVID-19 from spreading.
The school’s statement says “Our district agrees with Maverick’s position that school should be held in person five days per week. However, we must follow the social distancing requirements set forth by the state; and, when it is deemed safe to do so by our government and health officials, we will gladly welcome all of our 8,800 students back.”
Officials with the school district said Maverick Stow attended school in person again on Wednesday morning and “continued to display insubordinate behavior” and even confronted an administrator, and dared the school district to “forcibly remove” him from school grounds.
The district said police have become involved in the situation.
Officials for William Floyd wrote in their statement, saying, “As a district, we must work to ensure a safe and disruption-free environment for students who are following the rules and showing up to learn. When a student is suspended off of school grounds for any reason, we cannot and will not tolerate students trying to gain access to our grounds or buildings.”
Suffolk County has seen some of the worst outbreaks of COVID-19 in the state over the spring months. County officials confirmed at least 45,000 infections and 2,000 deaths as of Wednesday. In related news, we previously reported that several countries have slammed coronavirus cotton swab test kits manufactured in China as being highly inaccurate.
Kyle James Lee – The AEGIS Alliance – This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
