this school is 80% minority, 20% white. they decided in their votes to elect a student body government that was more white than minority. they have minority members, but the principal goes, no, no, that s not going to do. you re telling the black voters they re disenfranchised. kennedy: and you work with parents and student groups before these elections, get the kids engaged in the process before anyone decides to run and make sure you have the kind of passion necessary that people can make a p convincing argument when they stand up before their fellow students so they can get their votes. that s when you do it, you don t do it ipso facto because it sends the message that, a, this is the soviet group on, and, b, when your feelings are hurt, you ll be coddled in the real world, and that doesn t happen. the point is nobody s saying anybody mess with the the election. the students voted, and i don t think it s right for the principal to come in and go, oh, no, no, no, i know you elect
vote, everybody said it s time that we actually raise our voices, insert our voices into the education conversation and say we ve had enough with this test. we were quickly met with a threat of a ten-day suspension without pay. i ll say two things about our story very quickly. number one, the student body government and the pta voted unanimously to support our boycott and thousands [ applause ] literally thousands of parents, students, and teachers from around the country flooded our inbox with e-mails, wrote letters and phone calls to the superintendent because they ve seen the last decade of no child left behind policy and race to the top push the test and punish model that hospital woasn t wor improve public education. ultimately, they backed off the suspension threat and made the map test voluntary at the high