Young Maverick Stow, a senior at William Floyd High School on Long Island, is living up to his name as a maverick. He said he can’t learn online and wants the school to provide him with an education. Maverick is protesting the lockdown rules and shows up for school every day, even though he is on a part-time schedule.
“I was going to school like students should be going to school,” Long Island student Maverick, told WABC, adding that he believes students should be in school five days a week.
When he arrived on school grounds staff there took his temperature and he proceeded to his first-period class.
He was caught going to class
Once in class, however, his teacher noted that he was not on the class roster for the day and told administrators who asked him to report to the principal’s office.
Stow said administrators asked him to leave the school grounds because he wasn’t supposed to be there on that day, but he refused.
He spent the day going to his classes. At the end of the day, school officials told him he was suspended for five days.
“I was going to school like students should be going to school. I think that a five-day suspension is out of line,” he told the outlet.
His parents said they fully support their son. They knew what he was going to do beforehand.
“Kids need to be in school every day,” said Maverick’s mother, Nora Kaplan-Stow. “Virtual learning is not learning. My son is being suspended because he wants to be in school.”
In fairness, the school is stuck with Governor Cuomo’s extreme mandates.
His brilliant deduction
“The virus doesn’t discriminate on Mondays or Tuesdays or Thursdays or Fridays. That’s not how it works,” he told WABC.
The school warned his parents he could be arrested if he showed up to school again on Thursday.
The school issued the following statement Thursday:
Today, Maverick Stow, as reported by the media, was arrested for criminal trespassing for unlawfully entering school grounds. As a district, our primary focus aside from providing a high-quality education, is to provide a safe learning environment for students and staff. Any attempt by a student who has been suspended or any other unauthorized person trying to enter school grounds is taken extremely seriously and will be met with the most severe consequences. School safety is a top priority especially in this day and age.
Irresponsible?
Mr. Stow continues to display irresponsible and selfish behavior with today’s latest publicity stunt. He arrived wearing a neon green shirt – for high visibility – with a contingent of media just outside the fence line trying to capture him getting arrested as he entered the building. He entered the building and was immediately arrested by the Suffolk County Police Department without incident and transported to the police station. As a result, if Mr. Stow continues to try to access school grounds each day that we are open, we will close the high school – and its approximately 3,000 students – to all in-person learning and it will be all virtual for the foreseeable future.
We are still in the midst of a pandemic and will abide by the regulations set in place by our government and health officials designed to keep our students and staff safe. As we have said, Mr. Stow’s rights as a student do not surpass the rights of any of our other 8,799 students; they should not have to come to school to witness this circus atmosphere each day. Most of our in-person classes at the high school are at maximum capacity according to the square footage of each classroom. It is just not possible to have all of our students back under the current social distancing regulations. We will not condone or allow students to flagrantly break the law in our schools.
Arresting him? “Severe consequences” because he wants to learn? Really? Governor Cuomo’s regulations are absurd and if the school administrators had any moxie, they would contest them. Many children won’t learn this way.
How much would you bet that this will go away right after the election?
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