Image Credit: Clearly Ambiguous/Flickr
Principal Katie Pennington of Kenowa Hills High School in Walker, Michigan could have been voted Worst Principal of the Year yesterday be her students. Seems Principal Pennington didn’t like her students – wait for it – riding their bikes to school; so she suspended them.
More than 60 high school seniors were suspended on the last day of school and banned from their senior walk, all for participating in a 3-mile bike ride/race to school which was escorted by both the local police and the mayor. While the suspension remains in place, students can now do their senior walk and Superintendent Gerald Hopkins has stated that they can make up any exams they missed because of the suspension.
Kenowa Hills senior Cody Nicks told CNN that Principal Pennington “had absolutely no clue, but, I mean, that was the whole point of it. It wasn’t even a prank, but a celebration for our last day … The way it was reacted to was completely absurd.”
Local parents are outraged at the decision to suspend the students as most parents probably should be. At my high school on senior prank day, the senior class left the area and went to the beach for the day, making school officials drive all the way there to try to bring us back. A local bike ride, on the other hand, seems like the type of thing that should be encouraged by officials and not punished. Anything that gets people out of their cars and onto bicycles for a fun, celebratory ride in the morning should be applauded.
[via Reddit]
Parents outraged by bike ride reaction: woodtv.com