Cobb County schools dish out punishment for walkout

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Cobb County students who took part in last week’s national walkout against gun violence will have to pay a price.

On Wednesday, the district began dishing out discipline.

At the picnic tables at East Cobb Park in Marietta, Madeleine Deisen and her classmates were on a mission.

"People across the country, thousands of people, plan to march to call for common sense gun control to keep our students safe,” Deisen said.

They were making posters for what’s called the ‘March For Our Lives’ this weekend, in cities from coast to coast. All the while, they worry that administrators of their local schools are on the wrong side of history.

"I think they should have been supporting us in this. Truthfully, we weren't doing anything wrong. We weren't disrupting class at all,” sophomore Natalie Carlomagno said.

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The district is now administering punishment for the hundreds of Cobb students who took part in the walkout. Some have already learned that for them, it’s a one day in-school suspension, which means a day of silent study.

"I believe the punishment should fit the crime. In this case, the crime is being seven minutes late to one class,” senior Anthony Spirgle said.

District officials would not do an interview with Channel 2 on the subject and would only say the schools were administering appropriate consequences to those who violated the student code of conduct.

"I don't think we deserve this punishment at all. We were fighting for our right to be safe, to go to school and not be killed. I don't see a fault in that,” Carlomagno said.

The March For Our Lives in Atlanta starts at 11 a.m. Saturday at The Center for Civil and Human Rights.

Cox Media Group