In the West , student strikes date to the early days of universities in the Middle Ages , with one of the earliest and most significant being the University of Paris strike of 1229 , which lasted two years and yielded significant concessions . In more recent times , significant walkouts occurred in the late 1960s and early 1970s : the French May 1968 events began as a series of student strikes . The largest student strike/boycott in American history occurred in May and June 1970 , in the aftermath of the American invasion of Cambodia and the killings of student protesters at Kent State University in Ohio . An estimated four million students at more than 450 universities , colleges and high schools participated in the Student Strike of 1970
Kent State University
Kent State shootings
Student protest