Students at Chicago’s King College Prep High School staged a sit-in on Thursday, demanding that their principal, Shontae Higginbottom resign.

The students say they’re fed up with changes to school policy: specifically the closing of a media center, and a new policy that locks out student who leave the school building.

Also, many students and teachers are simply fed up with Higginbottom’s disrespectful behavior towards students and staff.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

“She came in and did exactly what was expected,” senior Sebastian Moore said. “She spoke to people in remedial tones, treated them like third-graders. These are seniors. These are 18-year-olds. These are registered voters making informed decisions. You can’t speak to them like they’re German shepherds, or border hounds.”

Students and teachers say Wednesday was a fiery day at the school.

Higginbottom allegedly got into an argument with a student at an assembly for student government. When a student teacher stepped in to break up the argument, students say the principal turned on the teacher, to the point of tears. When the student teacher’s supervising teacher also tried to help, she was also yelled at, in front of the students.

And parents say Higginbottom once used a sexual connotation at a parent meeting. It prompted an apology letter to parents soon after.

Students aren’t the only ones fed up. One teacher who did not what to be named said the atmosphere was filled with “bullying and innuendo,” “rules everywhere, special favors for specific teachers and threats to others.”

CPS says they’ve gotten the message loud and clear, and will begin efforts to mediate the situation.

 

Are you happy to see students utilizing civil disobedience to get their concerns addressed?

Should Higginbottom be fired?

Sound off below!