Schools Ask Parents to Foil Walkout

Alerted by rumors that students are planning a mass walkout to protest Proposition 187, Oxnard school officials are urging parents to persuade their children to stay at school.

Students at the district’s five high schools are reportedly planning to hold simultaneous demonstrations at some point before Election Day, possibly this week, Oxnard Union High School District Supt. Bill Studt said Tuesday.

About 200 Rio Mesa High School students staged a walkout Friday to protest the ballot initiative, which would ban illegal immigrants from public school classrooms.

Officials fear that the rumored mass protest at Camarillo, Channel Islands, Hueneme, Oxnard and Rio Mesa high schools could lead thousands of youths to leave school.

Appearing at a news conference with officers from the Oxnard Police Department, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department and the California Highway Patrol, Studt said school officials know many students strongly oppose Proposition 187.

But school and police officials are concerned that bands of students marching on busy streets could get hit by passing cars, Studt said.

“We see this simply as an issue of danger to the students,” Studt said. “We’re concerned we have a tragedy in the making.”

Besides worrying about students’ safety, Studt said authorities are also concerned protesters may repeat the criminal actions of some youths in Friday’s march, such as vandalizing property and throwing rocks at cars.

He estimated that as many as two dozen Rio Mesa High students were involved in such crimes, but said officials were still trying to identify them.

The Rio Mesa walkout began about 9 a.m. Friday when hundreds of students remained in the school courtyard instead of moving on to their second class.

Because Rio Mesa officials had been forewarned about the protest, they tried to prevent it by urging students to hold a forum on campus to air their views on the ballot measure.

But dozens of youths began scaling the school’s chain-link fence, leading school officials eventually to open a gate and allow hundreds of students to leave campus.

School officials said most of these students returned to Rio Mesa later in the day.

To prevent what happened at Rio Mesa from occurring on a larger scale throughout the district, school officials have decided, out of desperation, to try something different.

They are requesting help from parents.

Besides asking parents to urge that their children refrain from joining marches, school officials are also inviting adults to volunteer at schools over the next few days.

The more parents and other adults on the campuses, Studt said, the less likely it is that students will defy school officials by walking out.

School officials are also trying again a technique that failed at Rio Mesa: They are encouraging students to debate Proposition 187 during an organized forum at school.

Studt acknowledged such school forums would fail to satisfy students’ desire to demonstrate their views to the public. But he said, “There’s a more compelling issue than that, and that’s their safety.”

Despite the district’s efforts, Studt said some students will probably leave school anyway.

All students who participate in walkouts will be treated as truants, facing possible after-school detention or other punishment.

Oxnard Police Cmdr. Jaime C. Skeeters said officers will arrest students who break the law with acts of vandalism or efforts to bar traffic.

But if students who march remain orderly, Skeeters and other police officials at the news conference said they would try only to protect the youths from traffic and other dangers.

* L.A. COUNTY RALLIES: B11