A story reported here Thursday morning — the Greenbrier School District’s paddling of three students who took part in National Walkout Day in protest of gun violence, is circling the globe. This from CNN is just one example.

One of the students, Wylie Greer, 17, has said he and two others chose to walk out and were given a choice between a suspension or paddling. They took licks with a wooden paddle.

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Those choices surprised him, Greer said, but he picked the paddle with the support of his parents. Greer said taking the paddling “was the noble and right thing to do in this scenario.”

“In my mind, the in-school suspension was essentially conceding to sitting down and shutting up, which is what the admin and school wanted to happen, to keep it quiet almost,” Greer said. “I felt if I stood up and took the punishment in an honorable way, that it was better than doing what they wanted me to do which is shut up and go on with our lives. I don’t think that they expected me to take the corporal punishment.”

The school, which condones corporal punishment, said the punishment wasn’t for his political point of view but for walking out of class.

I’m sure the paddling will convince him never to do THAT again.

Good going, Greenbrier. Making Arkansas Great Again. A tip of the hat, too, to Bentonville, where the Bentonville School Board’s official harrumph about rules and promise of discipline for demonstrators helped encourage 600 students to take to the streets.

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