A student who was shot at his school two years ago received detention for walking out of school to protest gun violence.
Cooper Caffrey, 16, was one of two students shot and injured after a classmate opened fired at Madison High School in Middletown, Ohio, in February 2016.
He told the Cincinnati Enquirer that he didn’t initially plan on participating in the walkout to protest gun violence, but was angered when school officials told students they would be disciplined for doing so.
Student leaders at the school had agreed to wear the colors of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 people were killed in a mass shooting last month, instead of participating in a walkout.
{mosads}
But Caffrey and 42 other students still chose to walk out. They received detention for doing so.
Caffrey and his father later attended a school board meeting where the walkout was discussed, during which the board’s president said the students owed the school’s resource officer an apology for not following instructions during the demonstration.
Caffrey told his dad that the president’s statement “was like being shot all over again,” according to the Enquirer.
He also told his dad that he wanted to continue attending school board meetings to argue against arming teachers, which the board was debating.
Caffrey has since started a petition among students to protest arming teachers.