Scores of students at a Huntington, West Virginia high school staged a walkout of their homeroom period Wednesday to protest being mandated to attend an Evangelical revival assembly held at the school during school hours last week, ABC News reports.
While a preacher told the students that Jesus was the only way to save their souls and that no one can get to heaven unless they believe in Christ, a Jewish student asked if he could leave. He couldn’t, he was told by a teacher, because the doors to his classroom were locked. Another texted his father, “Is this legal?”
Huntington High School, with around 1,000 students, was in an open-study period during the assembly, when students study for exams, finish term work or participate in clubs. The assembly was organized by a Christian student group, and attendance was supposed to be voluntary, but at least two teachers took their entire classes to attend.