Principals’ Responses to Student Gun Violence Protests: Deter, Manage, or Educate for Democracy?

Context: School-based student protests have received little scholarly attention, yet they have the potential to impact the school community, students’ civic development, and larger social movements. Principals are key actors in responding to school-based student protests. As school leaders, principals’ actions affect the outcome of student protests and shape many students’ first experiences as activists. Purpose: This study examines U.S. public high school principals’ responses to school-based student protests in 2018, a year of heightened protest activity in response to gun violence in schools. The purpose of our study is to understand how a national sample of principals responded to student protests and to quantify general trends in their responses. Research Design: Using a mixed methods approach, we surveyed 491 principals during the summer of 2018; follow-up interviews were conducted with 38 principals. Analyses are grounded in the Deter-Manage-Educate framework, a new conceptual framework that we develop in this paper, organized around the three broad goals principals pursue when responding to student protests. Using this framework, we determined how and how many principals deterred, managed, and educated. Results: Findings show that very few principals outright deterred student protests. Nearly all principals managed by setting parameters around protests in an effort to balance students’ right to free speech with concerns for order and safety. A majority of principals also educated, using student protest as an opportunity to encourage civic development. Our findings suggest that an important distinction exists between principals who channel students toward (or away from) a particular manner of protest and principals who facilitate reflection to help students realize their own vision of civic engagement. Implications: This study has implications not only for principals, but also for district leaders and educational leadership organizations: Although many principals receive support for managing the logistical (and legal) challenges of responding to student protests, more attention needs to be directed toward helping principals leverage the educative opportunities that student protest can provide.