(CNN) Students across the United States are serving detention or in-school suspension as discipline for walking out of class Wednesday to protest gun violence.

But a student at Greenbrier High in Arkansas says he was punished a different way.

Wylie Greer

Wylie Greer told CNN that only he and two other students walked out, and while they were sitting outside the school building, the principal approached and asked if they knew "there would be consequences" for their action.

They said yes, Greer said, and returned to class. The 17-year-old senior discovered he had a choice of discipline: two days of in-school suspension or two swats with a wooden paddle.

Those choices surprised him, Greer said, but he picked the paddle with the support of his parents. Greer said taking the paddling "was the noble and right thing to do in this scenario."

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