Lawyers offer pro bono services to Wisconsin students who take part in school walkouts

Students who plan to defy their schools' efforts to limit participation in next month's national walkout to protest gun violence have a new group of allies.

Lawyers around the state are offering to represent them pro bono, inspired by a Milwaukee attorney who announced his plans to do so on his Facebook page this week.

"The response has been overwhelmingly positive," said Milwaukee attorney Jay Urban. He said he was inspired by the growing movement of young people mobilized in the wake of last week's deadly school shooting in Parkland, Fla.

"Lawyers are volunteering to help me throughout the state," said Urban, who cited a decades-old U.S. Supreme Court decision in defense of the students. "Even some I've opposed in court."

"We're not trying to drum up business here," he said. "We're trying to be a resource so schools take into account the rights of students."

At least nine Milwaukee-area schools appear on a list of those across the country where students plan to take part in a National School Walkout at 10 a.m. March 14. The Youth EMPOWER arm of the National Women's March, which is promoting the event, is encouraging students and staff to walk out for 17 minutes to honor the 17 people killed by a gunman at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland last week.

Waukesha School District Superintendent Todd Gray drew criticism this week for an e-mail suggesting students and faculty who take part in the walkout during class time would be considered disruptive and could face disciplinary action, according to a story first reported by the Journal Sentinel's Now News Group. He quickly back-pedaled, saying students could take part with permission from their parents.

RELATED: Waukesha superintendent softens stance on student participation in walkout

RELATED: Students mobilize on gun violence, saying 'We will be the last mass shooting'

RELATED: Wisconsin AG Brad Schimel open to arming teachers

Gray said in an e-mail to the Journal Sentinel that the district is not prohibiting student-led events, in school, as long as they are not disruptive to classrooms.

"But we as a district are not participating with outside political action organizations or events, per board policy," he said. "Parents can excuse students to attend these events."

Several other school districts said they are still formulating their policies in response to the March 14 event and another national walkout planned for April.

Those included the Germantown, where Superintendent Jeffrey Holmes said it would be guided by the district's disorderly conduct policy, which allows students to "express ideas and opinions, privately or publicly, provided that such exercise does not infringe on the rights of others and does not interfere with the operation of the schools."

Oak Creek-Franklin Superintendent Tim Culver said Thursday that students who leave classrooms without official permission would be considered absent without an excuse or tardy. He said parents have a limited right to excuse their students.

"However, our district and staff will make every effort to encourage and redirect our young learners to express their feelings and/or political views in more constructive and proactive ways that do not disrupt their learning," he said in an email

Urban, who has a daughter in the Shorewood School District — where he said it's "not likely to be a problem" — said students have a constitutional right to take part in peaceful protests, according to a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court Decision.

In Tinker vs. Des Moines, brought by an Iowa teenager suspended with her brother and three others for wearing black armbands to school to protest the Vietnam War, the court ruled 7-2 that students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate."

Urban hopes that is enough to deter schools from interfering with student protests; he'd rather not have to file any lawsuits, he said.

"I hope we never get a case," he said.