FAIRMONT — A group of Marion County high school seniors is fed up with being treated as “guinea pigs” and plans to stage a sit-in today in front of the board of education office to get this point across to school administrators.
The protest, set to commence at 7 a.m., is a way for members of the graduating class of 2010 to show their displeasure for the way the board of education is handling the launch of the 21st Century Passport senior project.
“This is really a collaboration of all the senior classes,” East Fairmont High School senior and student body president Paris Winfrey said Thursday. “We are all in agreement that the whole thing is ridiculous.”
Winfrey and his classmates are not opposing the project itself, which aims to prepare students for an undefined job market through an in-depth project and portfolio completed in a chosen career field, but the way the board of education has manned it since choosing the Class of 2010 as the first group of students in the county to take it on as a graduation requirement.

