Clifton school officials use reverse-911 to prevent student walkout
NORTHJERSEY.COM
STAFF WRITER
CLIFTON — Thousands of students might have walked out of Clifton High School on Friday morning in protest of state education funding cuts — but school administrators appear to have pulled the plug on the plan even before it gained momentum.
When school officials got word of the protest plan, they told kids they would be banned from the prom if they participated, a high-ranking police official said.
A student who learned on the social networking site Facebook of a plan to stage a massive 8 a.m. walkout tipped off school administrators, who immediately began working to stop it, said schools Superintendent Richard Tardalo.
When district computer technicians identified the Clifton High student who was organizing the protest, her parents were called and the teenager was warned to cancel the event and tell all other students through Facebook that the walkout was called off, the superintendent said.
And a reverse emergency-call-system message was sent out Thursday night to all parents of high school students warning of serious consequences should any student participate in the walkout. School officials would not specify the consequences students would have been faced with had they not complied.
But Detective Capt. Robert Rowan said students were told that if they were caught in the walkout, the
When school officials got word of the protest plan, they told kids they would be banned from the prom if they participated, a high-ranking police official said.
A student who learned on the social networking site Facebook of a plan to stage a massive 8 a.m. walkout tipped off school administrators, who immediately began working to stop it, said schools Superintendent Richard Tardalo.
When district computer technicians identified the Clifton High student who was organizing the protest, her parents were called and the teenager was warned to cancel the event and tell all other students through Facebook that the walkout was called off, the superintendent said.
And a reverse emergency-call-system message was sent out Thursday night to all parents of high school students warning of serious consequences should any student participate in the walkout. School officials would not specify the consequences students would have been faced with had they not complied.
But Detective Capt. Robert Rowan said students were told that if they were caught in the walkout, the
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