Students at a “rural, very conservative” public school in Arkansas will face corporal punishment after participating in a national school walkout Wednesday, according to the mother of one of the teens.

Jerusalem J. Greer, a blogger whose 17-year-old son attends Greenbrier Public School in Greenbrier, Arkansas, posted on Twitter Wednesday after students across the country walked out of school in a unified call for gun reform.

“My kid and two other students walked out of their rural, very conservative, public school for 17 minutes today,” Greer. “They were given two punishment options. They chose corporal punishment. This generation is not playing around.”

Greer explained her child’s school allowed the three students to choose between suspension or “swats.”

“They choose this and we supported their choice,” she said.

As the Daily Beast reports, Greenbier Public Schools “authorizes the use of corporal punishment to be administered in accordance with this policy by the Superintendent or his/her designated staff members who are required to have a state-issued license as a condition of their employment.”

Students are “given an explanation of the reasons for the punishment and be given an opportunity to refute the charges.”

Facing criticism from people who wondered why she “let” her child take a stand for gun control, Greer explained “it was his choice and we supported him.”