Middle Schoolers Revolt!

A middle school in Petroleum County (yes, that’s its real name), Montana has done the impossible! They have begun what will inevitably be called the greatest revolt of all time. With both high schoolers and middle schoolers participating, almost none of the students went to school. They were too busy inspiring students everywhere, by demanding, and succeeding in their demands for more sleep and less school. Read on to discover the tale of these inspiring heroes!

      On one particularly dreary Monday, the seeds of rebellion were planted. “One of my friends overslept because he had been doing his homework until 3 AM”, recalls Josh Palez-Stone, the high schooler mastermind behind the protest. “The teacher yelled at him, and said that schoolchildren were ‘too lazy these days’, and that was completely unfair.” 

As word circulated around the class, they became so angry that they decided to simply not come to school one day. “We were just like, this is unfair. We receive tons of pressure from teachers to do well in school, and when we try our hardest on such a limited amount of sleep, we get yelled at by teachers.” But the class was determined to do more. “We knew that no one would really take us seriously if only one class didn’t show up. So, we spread the word”,  Josh explains. By the end of the school day, nearly all of their high school decided not to show up. “I told my sister who was in middle school,” Josh added. “That was how it spread there. They were even more enthusiastic about the idea.” Every single student refused to come to school! Either they said they were sick, or they took the bus or walked, and then immediately turned around to meet the whole group. By the time the school called the parents, it was too late, because that wasn’t all.

     The students had decided to take their case to court. They had painstakingly researched and researched and finally found enough evidence that students were not getting enough sleep. To add on, they led a protest through their small town, screaming for change. “My parents were furious. And they definitely weren’t the only ones!” one of Josh’s classmates recalled. “Eventually, we made a deal. If me and my classmates won the case, I wouldn’t be punished. I agreed because I was actually relieved. Earlier that day, I was afraid we were going to jail for violating Montana protest laws, but since we aren’t a large county, it was easy to stay on the sidewalk.” On March 27th, a group of representatives went to court. Montana v. Josh Palez-Stone and Willet High School was finally being heard! “It was practically a battle!” Eliza Palez-Stone, Josh’s sister, exclaimed. “It was a bunch of men in suits glaring at us while we explained that middle and high schoolers were not getting enough sleep to be healthy.”

    To their surprise, the case was decided in only 2 days! During that time, they received overwhelming support. Apparently, when the channels were blocked because representatives weren’t too keen about getting the revolt out, they forgot to block the channels to Belarus.

 “We definitely had allies in them! Kids in Belarus are really nice.” Eliza laughed. This story has a happy ending, because the kids won the case! Middle and high schools in Montana are now legally required to start no earlier than 9 AM, and there’s even talk about coming to school only for 3 hours on Fridays. The students were invited to watch the legal papers be drawn up(and most of them were on their phones or asleep, of course.) Everyone cheered when Josh’s classmate’s parents ungrounded him. “They were actually proud!” He whooped at a frat party. “We hope it’ll spread to the other states, but there’s definitely a lot of work that needs to be done before it can happen.” Josh added. “For now, it’s time to enjoy some good….” “Yes?” The news reporter prompted. Josh grinned. “Exactly.” he said, before strutting out to enjoy the peace of sleep and the sweet, sweet taste of freedom and victory.

*DISCLAIMER: This only worked because this county has a population of about 500 people!(For context, Kane County has a population of about 515,000.) Please do not attempt a revolt at your own middle or high school, it will be much, much harder! I TOTALLY wouldn’t join a revolt because it would be COMPLETELY wrong!*