Kansas Senate proposes harsh crackdown on student protests during school day
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Amendment fines districts if they don't get parental permission or discipline walkouts.
- State school board adjudicates complaints and can fine districts a superintendent's salary
- Opponents say it violates Tinker free‑speech rights and poses enforcement/safety problems.
A majority of Republicans in the Kansas Senate moved on Tuesday to fine public school districts up to six figures if they neglect to discipline students for participating in protests during the school day.
The amendment added to the state budget by Sen. Michael Murphy, a Sylvia Republican, would financially penalize districts that fail to obtain written parental permission for each student who participates in an organized protest.
The proposed crackdown on free assembly during the school day comes amid backlash over a series of student walkouts at Olathe Public Schools, including a Feb. 20 demonstration at Olathe Northwest High School that ended in four arrests after pro- and anti-ICE protesters clashed just off of school grounds.
“We understand we have a right to protest. We have a right to voice our opinion,” Murphy said during the floor debate. “But when we’re in high school, we’re there to learn, and so, with some of the events that we’ve had here lately in Kansas where kids have decided they want to just leave and go protest something — sometimes it’s with permission of the school, sometimes it’s not.”
His amendment would also require the state school board to adjudicate complaints related to walkouts and fine districts if it determines that staff members encouraged, enabled or facilitated a demonstration during the school day.
Murphy’s amendment passed 21-18, with nine Republicans joining all nine Senate Democrats in opposition. The amendment has yet to be considered by House lawmakers, who would have to approve it before it is included in the state budget. Gov. Laura Kelly also has the authority to veto individual line items in the budget.
First Amendment considerations
Opponents of Murphy’s amendment expressed concern that the proposal runs afoul of constitutional protections for free expression.
“Students have a right to free speech and a right to assemble,” said Sen. Cindy Holsher, an Overland Park Democrat who’s running for governor. “This amendment in particular looks like it would infringe upon that and be against the statutes that are already in place.”
In a Feb. 23 email to Olathe Schools families, Superintendent Brent Yeager outlined students’ constitutional right to participate in walkouts and other demonstrations. The email quoted the landmark 1969 Supreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines, which holds that students and teachers do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”
Under that ruling, schools can limit speech that causes a “material and substantial disruption” to the educational process or if it violates the rights of others.
Murphy’s amendment was supported by two Republican senators — Doug Shane of Louisburg and Beverly Gossage of Eudora — who released a joint statement late last month condemning the Olathe walkouts as a “breakdown of decorum and dialogue in (Kansas) public schools.”
“This is not a matter of free speech,” Gossage said during the debate. “You have your right to speech. You have your right to assemble — not during the school day, leaving school, so I have a right to assemble. School gets out really early. You have plenty of time to do something like this after school, no matter what it is that they are protesting.”
Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, a Lenexa Democrat, questioned whether 18-year-old high school students could be required to obtain parental consent before participating in a walkout.
The amendment defines a student walkout as “an organized effort for students to willfully violate school attendance requirements.” It would require districts to “enforce school attendance laws and policies with associated disciplinary actions for such absent students” or face fines.
Under its language, any day that a student walkout occurs would not count as an instructional day for purposes of meeting the district’s annual academic requirements.
Districts found by the state school board to be in violation of the budget provision would face a fine equal to the annual base salary of the superintendent for “each school day that a district experiences a student walkout.”
State Department of Education records show the median base salary for Kansas superintendents in the 2023-24 school year was $138,950. But some superintendent salaries are considerably higher. Yeager, the Olathe superintendent, has a base salary of $286,324.
An Olathe Public Schools spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.
Sen. Mike Argabright, an Olpe Republican who voted against the budget amendment, said creating a new policy on student walkouts would be an overreaction to a handful of isolated protests.
“We’re talking about state policy, and that concerns me that we react that way at times. I don’t think it’s necessary. I don’t believe that many of our public schools have this problem,” said Argabright, who also questioned why the new restrictions wouldn’t apply to private schools.
State school board member’s perspective
Melanie Haas, a Democratic member of the state board of education whose district includes much of eastern Wyandotte County and northeast Johnson County, called the budget amendment “a tremendous overreach by the Legislature.”
“There are so many problems with this,” Haas said in an interview. “First of all schools are not just letting kids walk out the door, and I feel like that’s what’s being insinuated.
“School districts in my part of the state have been very clear that there are consequences for walking out,” Haas said. “You’ll get marked as an unexcused absence. That can result in discipline. Parents are notified when students skip class.”
Haas said she doubts there would be a safe way for districts to enforce the policy and avoid the substantial fines it proposes.
“There’s not a good way to stop kids from walking out of school,” said Haas, the mother of a high school student. “If you’ve got a couple of dozen students who decide they’re going to walk out the door together, you can’t physically restrain them . . . You can’t grab kids. You can’t lock the doors. These are all safety concerns.”
Connie O’Brien, a Republican member of the state school board who represent areas in northern Johnson County, southwest Wyandotte County and parts of eastern Kansas, did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Here’s how Johnson County and Wyandotte County senators voted on the budget amendment. A “yes” vote indicates support for fining school districts over student walkouts and a “no” vote indicates opposition.
Johnson County
Etan Corson (D) No
Beverly Gossage (R) Yes
Cindy Holscher (D) No
TJ Rose (R) Yes
Douglas Shane (R) Yes
Dinah Sykes (D)
Adam Thomas (R) No
Mike Thompson (R) Yes
Kelly Warren (R) Yes
Wyandotte County
David Haley (D) No
Jeff Klemp (R) Yes
Pat Pettey (D) No
The Star’s Kendrick Calfee contributed reporting.
This story was originally published March 5, 2026 at 5:30 AM.
