Thread: Day two of protests turn violent at Pajaro Valley High

Day two of protests turn violent at Pajaro Valley High

by ToM RAGAN and daniel lopez
sentinel staff writerS
WATSONVILLE — Nearly 1,000 high school students came precariously close to clashing with dozens of officers armed with batons Tuesday after a demonstration on immigration rights turned into a tense standoff above Highway 1 near Pajaro Valley High School and ended with five arrests.

The demonstration was one of many held across the country to coincide with the first day of immigration reform talks by the U.S. Senate. It was the second protest staged by Watsonville students in as many days.

A carefully orchestrated march on Monday, California's holiday recognizing labor rights leader Cesar Chavez, disrupted traffic and erupted in violence among protesters, according to police.

Tuesday's showing of students turned into a free-for-all that closed Highway 1 and overwhelmed police.

Dozens of students fled toward the relatively busy highway after they were turned back by police who had stopped their attempt to make their way back into town along Harkins Slough Road.

"The freeway! The freeway!" they yelled.

California Highway Patrol officers ran after them, herding some of them back while others dodged oncoming traffic to cross the highway.

Hundreds of students walked off campus at Watsonville High School about 10:30 a.m., but tension did not begin to build until police prevented Pajaro Valley High School students from leaving campus around noon. Officers had mobilized forces from the CHP and Sheriff's Office in an effort to avoid a repeat of the gridlock, fights and bottle-throwing that took place during Monday's five-hour march through town, Capt. Eddie Rodriguez said.

Two lines of officers, standing side by side and clad in riot gear at the Harkins Slough Bridge, blocked the path of students as they made their way down from Pajaro Valley High to the road.

"We just want to walk, and we want to prove to the police that we can have a nice steady walk and not have all this drama," said Amanda Ramirez, 16, a sophomore at the high school.

Police stood their ground and the students refused to return to the gym to debate the issues as administrators proposed.

"This is way more effective than sitting in a gym," Ramirez said.

Administrators brought a microphone to the road as students sat on the pavement and shared their feelings about proposed immigration reform.

Many of the students' parents are in the country illegally or they have family who are undocumented.

Principal Pancho Rodriguez urged students to consider an alternative to marching.

"You need to make your voices heard beyond what you are doing here because in two weeks no one is going to remember," Rodriguez said.

But in the crowd, text messages and cell phone calls flew between P.V. students and their Watsonville High counterparts asking them to meet them at the bridge.

About noon the two student bodies, numbering between 800 and 1,000, met on the overpass of Highway 1 and the calm began to unravel.

Students yelled, "Si se pudo!" Si se pudo!" or "Yes, we did! Yes, we did." in a perceived triumph as officers at the bridge had backed off, letting the groups come together.

Capt. Rodriguez said the police intended to bring the groups together at Pajaro Valley High School to keep the students off city streets.

"Our plan was to allow the two groups to meet up in that area and prevent them from splintering off," he said. "It was the best thing we could do to be able to contain them and not end up with the situation we had Monday."

But confusion soon engulfed the mass of students now standing on the overpass of the highway surrounded by police.

Three tactical crowd-control teams from the Sheriff's Office had closed in from the rear of the arriving Watsonville High students in an attempt to steer the group off the overpass toward Pajaro Valley High.

The crowd, however, stalled at the overpass and dozens of students reacted by jumping a guardrail and heading down a hill toward the southbound lanes of Highway 1.

Some made it across all four lanes and scaled a fence on the city side of the highway as CHP officers staged along the road rushed to stop traffic and get the students off the hillsides and freeway.

Officer Grant Boles of the CHP said "There were several near collisions on the freeway because of the students."

No one was injured.

Rodriguez said officers anticipated students would break for the highway and had CHP officers ready to respond.

"It's not a very smart thing to do, and it is dangerous and risky," said Rodriguez. "Those who decided to do that took that risk upon themselves."

As the students were chased off the hillside and ordered back to the overpass, the crowd moved toward the foot of the campus.

Over the booming sound of his patrol car speaker, Watsonville Sgt. Saul Gonzalez told the students they were unlawfully assembling. His orders were clear: PV students were to return to class; Watsonville High students needed to get on the bus to return to their campus; failure to do so would result in arrest.

Two minutes later a team of officers moved in on the students who remained.

Pajaro Valley freshman Gregory Uvalles had been trying to usher his fellow students back to class just before five officers with batons descended on him from behind. Officers struggled to take Uvalles to the ground and hold him there.

"I didn't do anything!" the 15-year-old yelled as officers dragged him down and handcuffed him, his jacket slipping off in the process. "I didn't do anything!"

Another student who tried to intervene was tackled by a heavily armed sheriff's deputy, who pepper-sprayed him, held him to the ground and arrested him as they did Uvalles for obstruction of justice.

Capt. Rodriguez said the level of force was necessary.

"It was minimal and appropriate," he said. "The only time the Police Department intervened was when the general safety of individuals became threatened."

Three others, two males and a female, also were arrested for obstruction of justice. All were cited and released into the custody of their parents.

"Five arrests out of 1,000 people is very insignificant," said Rodriguez.

Shortly thereafter, a fight among students on the P.V. High campus broke out, sending motorcycle officers through the quad.

"Nobody got hurt, and nobody wanted anybody to get hurt, but this was a close one," said Mel Sornberger, a county probation officer who found himself shouting through a megaphone for the students to get back to class, sirens blaring as officers restored order about 1 p.m.

Anticipating another march today, city police requested the Pajaro Valley Unified School District consider canceling classes today as a "cooling-off period."

"This community can't keep on enduring this. It's not healthy for the community," said Rodriguez. "People are upset that these demonstrations are causing dysfunction in the community."

Police Chief Terry Medina said he hoped parents were having a dialogue with their children about the importance of the bill and lawful protest.

"We've lost track of the accountability part of protest when it infringes on others rights," Medina said. "If you give everyone a free pass, the inconvenience becomes more than that."

District officials decided against shutting down the high schools, instead opting to close Pajaro Valley and Watsonville high early — about 11 or 11:15 a.m. — today and perhaps the rest of the week, said Superintendent Mary Anne Mays.

"When we talked it through, we felt all those high school students running around with nothing to do would possibly cause greater problems and involvement by other schools," she said.

"Part of it is they are expressing their idea in protest by ditching school. If there is no school to ditch, it's less of an issue for the students who aren't as committed to the issue."

Students at Aptos High School took a different approach Tuesday. Principal Diane Burbank said about 25 students were prepared to walk out but were encouraged to direct their energy into a letter-writing session at the campus library.

Although the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, just hours after Monday's marches, voted to strip the House's immigration bill of its harsher criminal penalties, thus giving many of the students and their immigrant parents reason to celebrate, marches are expected to continue.

Rodriguez said he was not sure what the school district's decision would mean for public safety.

"I don't know if that's going to help us. If anything it may not allow us to have a place to return the students to," Rodriguez said.

Contact Daniel Lopez at dlopez@santacruzsentinel.com and Tom Ragan at tragan@santacruzsentinel.com.

Watsonville rallies

10:30 a.m. — 800 to 1,000 students from Watsonville, Pajaro Valley and Aptos high schools and Rolling Hills Middle School walk off campus.

Students from Pajaro Valley High are met by officers at the Harkins Slough Bridge preventing them from crossing over Highway 1.

Noon — Students marching from Watsonville High converge on the Highway 1 overpass at Harkins Slough Road with Pajaro Valley High students.

12:12 p.m. — Dozens of students jump a guard rail and head down the hill to the southbound lanes of Highway 1, dodging traffic, which comes to a halt. California Highway Patrol officers move in, chasing some back; others make it across all four lanes.

12:31 p.m. — Officers move the crowd to the foot of Pajaro Valley High, where Sgt. Saul Gonzalez issues a warning for students to return to class or be arrested.

12:34 p.m. — Students begin to disperse but others remain behind and two teams of officers move in, arresting two.

12:40 p.m. — Watsonville police motorcycle officers break up a fight between students in the quad of Pajaro Valley High.

12:51 p.m. — Police officers and campus security restore order.

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It's outrageous!

added to homepage

http://www.alipac.us/article-1125-thread-1-0.html

Are there any white kids in those schools? Are they staying in school or protesting too? If they are staying, are they getting educated?

I hope everyone in these towns, that are having protests, supports their police and not turn on them.