A 13-year-old New York student says she was suspended for informing other students of their right to opt-out of Common Core-aligned standardized testing.
The student, Seirra Olivero of the Orange-Ulster BOCES school in Goshen, New York, was told to “shut [his] mouth,” about the fact that students were not actually required to take the tests. Administrators suspended her for two days.
Olivero believed that the tests were “set up for the kids to fail,” according to The Times Herald-Record. It’s an opinion that many educators, administrators and parents share. (RELATED: Kids take Common Core tests with ‘inappropriate content, ambiguous questions’)
After she began telling other students that they were not legally required to take the tests, she was told to stop spilling secrets. Eventually, she was called to the principal’s office, where she was interrogated over her actions. She was asked, “why she was telling students they didn’t have to take the test.”
“I replied and said, ‘I did some research and it said they don’t have to,'” she said in a statement.
The principal inquired whether she had researched both sides of the issue.
She eventually left the principal’s office without permission, and this was the reason given for her suspension.
But Olivero believes her anti-Common Core advocacy played a role in the punishment. She has filed a complaint with the school district. (RELATED: You won’t believe what happened to this kid’s mom after she knocked Common Core)
Superintendent William Hecht did told The Daily Caller that the law prevents him from discussing individual student cases. However, he did say that nine other opt-out students were not suspended.
“We suspend students for violating the code of conducts,” he said. “We do not suspend students for opting out of exams or speaking out against them.”