MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — More than 200 Berkeley County high school students received various forms of discipline from school officials after walking out of class last week as part of ICE protests.
The protests occurred last Monday-Wednesday at Spring Mills, Martinsburg and Hedgesville high schools.
Berkeley County School Superintendent Ryan Saxe told the Panhandle News Network Monday that out of the 99 students who protested at Spring Mills, 91 received in-school detention, four students were suspended for two days and three students for three days.
There were a total of 84 students at Martinsburg High School that took part in the protest. Saxe said 32 of those students received in-school detention while 52 others were suspended because they left the school campus and did not return.
At Hedgesville High, 40 students took part. Saxe said 20 students got detention and 19 students were suspended for one day.
Sax said school administrators did a good job implementing plans to make sure instruction continued for those who stayed in class and to enforce policy violations.
“Our approach from Berkeley County Schools standpoint, was to protect instructional time and keep our students safe and supervised and apply our code of conduct in a fair and timely way,” Saxe said Monday.
Saxe said planning for the walkouts appeared to mostly happen online.
“It was not really happening at the school level,” Saxe said. “When social media and outside voices influence student behavior that obviously raises the stakes for safety and supervision.”
WEPM Radio reporter Luke Wiggs contributed to this story.