DUNMORE — Students at Pocahontas County High School walked out of their classes and out of the school Monday morning.

The students protested proposed Pocahontas County school system budget cuts, which they said would eliminate several math and science teacher positions at the school.

Students taking part in the protest held signs with slogans including “Hands Off My Education,” “Save Science” and “I Walk For My Education.”

At one point during Monday’s protest, the school’s Student Council members were asked to re-enter the school building and take part in a discussion with school officials.

A cell phone video of the discussion, taken by a student and then posted online Monday, showed a school official addressing the students immediately after they sat down.

“There are lots of different ways to express yourself,” the official is shown saying on the video. “But having a party on the lawn is not one of them. This is not what a protest is. A protest is expressing yourself properly and respectfully.”

During the discussion, one student said, “We got to school, and during the morning classes our teachers were crying. We didn’t know what was up. And then, later in the day, they were still all upset, and they could barely teach because they were so upset.

“Everyone was just scrambling back and forth to see what happened. And at the end of the day, those teachers were asked to take over other classes, How can they be expected to take over other classes when they’re upset and can’t teach their own classes?”

Another student said, “My sixth-period teacher cried. She was so upset, and she had to take over another class after she was done crying.”

The Inter-Mountain phoned the school and also the Pocahontas County Board of Education office seeking information and comment for this article.

Dialing the phone number for the BOE office prompted a busy signal throughout Monday afternoon. A representative who answered the phone at the high school said at that point PCHS Principal Joseph Riley and Lynne Roth Bostic, Pocahontas County superintendent of schools, were “behind closed doors” discussing the situation.

No school or county officials called or emailed The Inter-Mountain in response, although contact information was provided.

The Pocahontas County Board of Education is scheduled to meet tonight.