I think that the idea isn't merely about First Amendment but the First Amendment as it applies to the current location of the walk out. So, it's like saying "This place isn't safe. I am going to use my free speech and free peaceful, assembly to walk out of this unsafe place and demand policy change to make it safer."
So, to repoman, if a million students believe they need a wall to make their schools safe, then they might organize a similar protest. That would make the analogy better. Of course, you might also show some evidence of kids dying in school due to not having a wall to help your case, but it isn't clear that is necessary.
I am not really seeing a response to this.
So there appears to be a meme here of content neutrality or "if they can protest a particular x in X, then they can protest any x in X."
My comment was meant to indicate that X might be a smaller subset of the world of politics, in this case such things that the students think directly affects their survival in school.
So, if the school beats them every day, then they might walk out in protest. Or if the school does not provide lunch, recess, and toilet paper then they might walk out in protest. This sort of set of things is much less than the set X. It's a subset lesser than X, an X' if you will. So maybe we're talking about X' c X. And we're talking if they can protest particular x in X', then maybe they can protest any x in X', which is a different question than the meme from detractors.
To give some more concrete examples... Suppose there was a church in town that beat the students. Ought the students walk out of school to protest? That would be an x in X, but not an x in X'.
This is actually a non-political functional difference that remains content-neutral.
So far:
*crickets*
I have two comments about your posts...
First, from a purely civil rights perspective, the purpose of the protest must remain immaterial. So yes, if 50 students wanted to skip a half-day of school to join a local protest about Trump's stupid wall, they have exactly the same rights and protections as these students protesting against gun violence inside their schools.
From an optices point of view, it certainly makes a big difference, but not from a legal one (imo)
Second, I am going to go back to my point about parental permission - if the 50 kids leaving early to protest for Trump's wall have written permission from their parents, I don't believe that any school anywhere in the U.S. has the right or authority to punish the student with a suspension.