Talk about sticking it to the man.
Kyron Birdline, a high school student from Arlington, Texas, was recently suspended for sending a tweet to his local school district and the Texas Education Agency. The tweet’s content: a picture of his standardized test booklet in which Birdline wrote “I have the TAKS test to study for, not this unneeded craziness. YOLO ( :”
“I was being a highschool kid getting on Twitter,” he told ABC affiliate WFAA. “It wasn’t for a grade. Colleges don’t see it. It didn’t benefit my personal life at all.”
While Birdline is required to pass a standardized test to graduate high school – as are most students nationwide – it is not the STAAR standardized exam program in question that Birdline needs to pass, but rather the TAKS standardized exam program that he referenced in his so-called essay. According to the Dallas Morning Observer, Birdline is stuck taking both tests because the state wants to use the results of the STAAR tests to tweak the program before it completely phases out the older TAKS program.
Nonetheless, his school district wasn’t too pleased when they saw his tweet. The Arlington Independent School District released the following statement about Birdline’s suspension:
“Today there was an incident with a student tweeting a picture of an answer booklet for a STAAR field test. We have made an initial report of the incident to TEA and will continue to investigate further. The student has been punished in accordance with district disciplinary procedures.”
In the meantime, Birdline’s protest has gained traction online, as some supporters have used the hashtag #freeKyron to show support for his actions.
As Birdline said himself, YOLO.
