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On February 13th, Fair Grove High School’s students participated in a school-wide walk out in support of their former School Resource Officer (SRO).
Ben McMains had been Fair Grove’s resource officer for a little over half of the school year, along with being a police officer for the community of Fair Grove for several years, when everything suddenly changed for him and his family.
About three weeks ago Officer McMains was informed that he would no longer be able to work at Fair Grove as the Resource Officer. The school district has no part in firing Officer McMains, confirmed by Dr. Overstreet, principal at Fair Grove High School.
After all of this took place, some citizens and students of Fair Grove became passionate about standing up for Officer McMains. That is exactly what happened at Fair Grove on February 13th. Senior Gabe McMains, son of Officer McMains, organized a walk out during lunch that students could participate in to support his father. “I wanted to do this to support my father who lost his job,” Gabe explained. He continued, “I wanted everyone to be able to show their support.”
If students chose to participate in the walkout during lunch, they were making the sacrifice of their lunch time in order to support Officer McMains. “You are forgoing your lunch time, there will be no additional lunch time,” stated Mr. Seiger, athletic director at Fair Grove High School, during the walkout.
One of the students that participated in the walkout was senior Charlie Harp. He explained why he felt it was important to participate in the walkout by saying, “McMains is an awesome person and I wanted to support him.”
Many students in the high school participated in the walkout, showing a large amount of support for Officer McMains. “The turn out is amazing. I expected my friends to come out because they will always support me, but some of these kids I have never even talked to before. Which is awesome because it shows that they truly support my dad, not just me,” Gabe expressed.
