They Have Nothing on Laredo

I took this from the Daily Standard:

In Wisconsin, Teachers Take Students from Class to Protest

12:55 PM, Feb 16, 2011 • By DANIEL HALPER

Teachers and students in Wisconsin are protesting Governor Scott Walker's budget bill. But it's not a mark of democracy: instead, teachers have been taking kids out of school to march on the Capitol in Madison. It's being called a "sickout" -- and it's illegal.

 

"Teachers are joining protests planned today at the State Capitol," one witness to the protest said. "Yesterday, more than half of the student body of Madison East High School walked out with the support and assistance of their teachers."

If you were in Laredo in 2003 you might have remembered the dramatic return of the "Texas 11 Minus One" group of Texas state senators who fled to Arizona to avoid a vote on the redistricting rules.  I will only post the first couple of paragraphs of the Laredo Morning Times coverage of the return.  Please note what cheerleaders and band were at the event.  I thought mixing school district assets with politics was frowned upon.  

Texas senators return

BY TRICIA CORTEZ
Times staff writer

Before a cheering crowd of family, friends and supporters, the "Texas 11 Minus One" delivered hugs and speeches Wednesday afternoon in Laredo after returning from a defiant six-week holdout in Albuquerque, N.M. 

While the Cigarroa High School band played and stylish Ryan Elementary cheerleaders performed, the 10 Democratic state senators received a good dose of Texas heat while they stood on a makeshift stage in an airport hangar before an enormous Texas flag.

This event occurred on either 9-10-2003  This would have been a Wednesday.  Clearly these kids were taken out of school and asked to perform for a partisan political event.  Illegal, I would hope so.  I wonder what the statue of limitations is on this type of incident?

But I guess if everything you do is "for the children," this was probably legal.