MARK GUYDISH | OPINION: Students score high marks as protesters | The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, Scranton PA

The intangible values of Catholic education glittered like diamonds in a coal bucket Friday, when Holy Redeemer high schoolers staging a walkout exhibited all the key qualities the system claims to instill: Independent thought tempered with courtesy, passionate conviction weighted with pragmatism, depth of understanding expressed with eloquence, leadership grounded in humility.

If Christ was watching, I suspect he smiled.

I’m not saying Catholic schools are perfect, or that all the students who left the building in support of teacher efforts to unionize lacked ulterior motives. I’m sure the answer in both cases is “not.” But watching such orderly exuberance on a frigid Friday morning would’ve stirred many crusty hearts.

The story runs deeper than any news account you’ve likely seen. It stretched days and spiraled in multiple directions. As talk of the walk spread, the ambitions mutated, then metastasized. Even if, like me, you’ve been out of high school for decades, you know organizing this sort of effort among teens without adult supervision is akin to the proverbial cat herding.

By the time the school issued a letter Thursday warning of disciplinary action for walking out during school hours, the protest had threatened to become an unruly free-for-all, with the possibility that students would abuse the opportunity and slip off for the day. One senior I talked to several times before the day of the walkout conceded, with audible exasperation, that “this has gotten out of control.”

Maybe, but some seniors took the leadership mantle and everything was reined in by 8 a.m. Friday. Having attended a Catholic elementary school myself, I’m pretty confident a chunk of that self-restraint sprang from what these students had been taught every day for years. Even if only by osmosis, some of it inevitably sinks in. You know, do unto others, honor thy parents, all those 2,000-year-old lessons.

Measured and orderly

You can disagree with the union and insist teachers ought to be devout Catholics acquiescing to the bishop’s decision. You can criticize the students for ignoring rules and walking out of school. Both arguments have merit.

But the protest was measured and orderly, making a point with minimal impact on the educational day. It was done after weighing unknown consequences against a cause many clearly embraced deeply. (The administration’s response was equally well measured, observing the action and meting out a few hours of Saturday detention).

Hundreds of teens freed from school, yet I heard not a disrespectful or vulgar word. They rallied and whooped in the parking lot but responded to any request by concerned adults. They quieted quickly when fellow students picked up a bullhorn and spoke. And they marched twice around the school like, well, like people who had spent a good part of their academic life getting used to getting in line.

Halfway through the second lap, three of those who had helped organize stopped and waited for the end of the line. “We want to make sure everyone goes back in the school and no one tries to slip away,” David Kosloski said.

As they walked back into the building to learn their punishment, several kids lingering on the sidewalk who looked school-age - clearly not from Holy Redeemer - mocked them. “That’s it?” one asked “You’re actually going back to class?”

“Respect your teachers!” One girl shouted – not necessarily to the interlopers - as she climbed the steps.