Texas High School Students Protest to #FreeByrd

The punishment over a Texas High Tradition has kicked off a protest at Texas High School in Texarkana Texas.  Senior Austin Byrd jumped into the school pond located at the campus on Summerhill Rd. Tuesday afternoon and received what fellow students feel was an unfair punishment.  The protest also kicked off a social network protest promoting the hashtag #freebyrd on twitter, facebook, faces, clothes, and cars.

The incident that started the whole thing happened Tuesday afternoon during the school's annual Canterbury Tales event... (Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote, the droghte of March hathe perced to the roote... that's right, I'm somewhat cultured.)

Byrd jumped into the campus pond as a prank, and admittedly says,

I really don't know why I did it, I just got caught up in the moment.

Students reported that Byrd was initially given a punishment of 5 days suspension, 20 days in a District Alternative Education Program, and a $300 fine. However, late Wednesday afternoon Byrd reported that his punishment was partially reduced to 2 days suspension, and 10 days ISS (In school suspension).

Other students have reported receiving punishments ranging from suspensions to ISS for showing their support for their fellow T-High Tiger.

Here's a cell phone video of the stunt that was posted on Youtube...

(To be fair, I got most of my information for this blog post from my daughter, her friends and my nephew who are all students... When I was a kid at Texas High, there was always someone that jumped in the pond... yes I jumped in once, and one time I got shoved in... I spray painted that guys Cragar SS rims green... and we laughed.  I honestly didn't even know there was still a "pond" on campus at Texas High. I thought it was long gone because of all of the expansions. We also slept under "The Tiger" on Kennedy Lane leading up to the Texas High Vs. Arkansas High football game my Senior year, and I wonder if we would get "trespassing charges" these days.  This kid did wrong, but all of this ISS, and campus cops issuing $300 tickets... why can't you just swat his tail a few times with a stick, and turn him loose? Man, I miss those good old days.)

KSLA News reported on the story...

Here is a video that was posted to Youtube in regards to the whole #freebyrd thing... and nevermind my opinion... I still thought it was creative and very funny...