http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nort ... otest.html

By Sherry Saavedra
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

9:10 a.m. March 30, 2006

HOWARD LIPIN / Union-Tribune

San Diego County Sheriff's deputies kept a high profile outside the main entrance of Mar Vista High School yesterday after 137 students were arrested at a protest at a park.

OCEANSIDE – Oceanside middle and high schools were ordered closed for the rest of the week and other campuses around the region were bracing for a fourth day of student protests over proposed revisions to federal immigration laws.

The Oceanside district made the decision to close schools after 250 student protesters faced off with police officers in a melee Wednesday at Oceanside High. The closure will affect around 10,000 students.

Some students hurled food, milk cartons and plastic bottles at officers, prompting law enforcement to shoot pellets filled with pepper spray at the crowd's feet, police said.

Three boys threw chunks of concrete at officers and were arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, Oceanside Sgt. Leonard Mata said.

The fracas drew 80 officers from four law enforcement agencies.

Students across the county have demonstrated for the past three days over protested revisions to immigration laws, with about 2,800 students involved in protests Wednesday.

In San Diego, law enforcement and school district leaders were urging parents to tell their children to stay in school and skip the walkouts.

About 2,000 San Diego students engaged in marches and demonstrations over proposed immigration reforms from about a dozen San Diego schools on Wednesday, an increase from around 1,200 on Tuesday, San Diego Police Assistant Chief Bill Maheu said.

Maheu warned that police may arrest more students if the protests continue. He said police have seen several instances of minor rock throwing and vandalism.

“If we need to take a more aggressive role, we will have to do that,” Maheu said. “But we don't want to do that. We want the students to heed the message and the parents to heed the message to be safe and stay in the classroom.”

Mayor Jerry Sanders issued a statement on Wednesday warning that protests come with consequences.

“I urge all San Diegans to exercise their freedom of speech and assembly on this all and all other issues, but families must be aware that the willful violation of truancy laws by school age children comes with consequences that could include suspension from school,” the mayor said.

The protests – which are happening all around California and in other states – were sparked by a sweeping immigration bill passed by the House of Representatives in December. A less restrictive bill is being considered by the U.S. Senate.

Maheu said the repeated days of protests and marches are depleting police resources as officers monitor the students actions and provide traffic control. He also expressed concern about student safety.

In Imperial Beach on Wednesday, about 130 students who walked out of Mar Vista High School were arrested and issued citations for daytime loitering before being transported by school buses back to school, sheriff's Lt. Margaret Sanfilippo said. Maheu said 17 of those were arrested by San Diego police.

Police said some Mar Vista protesters tried to get students from nearby Southwest High School to join them.

Sanfilippo said the decision was made to cite the protesters after the group became “more rambunctious” and began blocking streets and businesses near South Bay Community Park.

“With all protesters, it is the behavior of protesters that generates what type of response we have toward them,” she said.

Oceanside Superintendent Ken Noonan decided to close all middle and high schools on Thursday and Friday because of concerns about safety.

“We have received information that violence and racial tension could escalate throughout the community during the remainder of the week,” Noonan said in a statement explaining his decision to close schools.

Protest crowds elsewhere in California dwindled yesterday because of enforcement of truancy laws.

The number of students protesting in San Diego County yesterday also appeared to be smaller than on Tuesday, but a Chicano Park gathering appeared to have grown.

Police estimated that there were 2,000 students in the park Wednesday, up from 1,500 to 1,800 the day before.

The demonstrations sweeping through the state are taking place at a time when Congress is debating immigration policy changes. One bill passed by the House in December would make it a felony to be in this country illegally.

“I don't think that immigrants are felons. They're just trying to make a better life,” said Castle Park High School freshman Rebecca Ortiz, who was among those cited yesterday for loitering.

Rebecca, 14, said her grandfather immigrated illegally and was bitten by snakes as he made the arduous journey.

The San Diego Unified School District, which serves a large number of Latino immigrants, is providing its schools with materials so they can capitalize on current events as a “teachable moment.” Students are being encouraged to express their views through letters and e-mails to elected representatives, instead of walking out of class.

San Diego Unified estimated that about 1,000 students skipped school yesterday.

The district has asked principals to defuse walkouts with letters and phone calls to parents at home. It's also suggested that students hold protests before- and after-school or during lunch.

“While we understand the right of children to have opinions about issues of national importance, it is our objective for them to take these issues as learning experiences,” said San Diego Unified's chief administrative officer, Jose Betancourt. “The learning experiences can be best had in the classroom.”

The biggest concern of district officials is that students could get hurt or damage property during protests.

In some cases, concerned San Diego school administrators and campus police officers stayed with student protesters to ensure their safety. Schools have sent buses to pick students up, because some have marched long distances from their schools. There have been reports of students walking as far as 10 miles.

Other protests in North County were peaceful. An orderly group of nearly 200 students marched through Vista yesterday afternoon. In Fallbrook, about 50 students held a demonstration across the street from Fallbrook High School.

In El Cajon, Granite Hills High School went into a lockdown in the morning to prevent students from coming into contact with marchers from nearby El Cajon Valley High School, who may have been trying to encourage Granite students to join them.

About 200 students walked out of El Cajon Valley High School at 9:40 a.m. and marched with signs and flags, according to the Grossmont Union High School District. El Cajon police also ordered a lockdown at Montgomery Middle School.

The Grossmont district has sent home an automated phone message to parents to urge them to keep their children at school. The message, delivered in English and Spanish, warned that students who are arrested could face a $250 fine.

On Wednesday night, Memorial Academy of Learning and Technology in Logan Heights held a parent meeting that drew nearly 200 to discuss the student walkouts. A large number of Memorial students have been skipping school in the past few days. Some of them walked to other schools in San Diego to rally students to leave class to join them.

The Memorial meeting, which started with an emphasis to keep students in school, turned into an emotional conversation about the politics of immigration in this country. Another walkout from Memorial was expected Thursday.

Geno Flores, deputy superintendent of the San Diego Unified School District, said students can demonstrate before and after school and on weekends, so they do not have to miss school.

He said the protests also have an economic cost because the school district is losing daily attendance funding from the state. However, he said the cost has not yet been tallied.

Students who leave school without permission will be considered truant and face disciplinary action, such as detention, Saturday school and even expulsion depending on the circumstances.

“It has affected the operation of our schools,” he said. “We are very concerned about our student safety and about the No. 1 priority of educating our children.”

The only real trouble Wednesday came in Oceanside.

Laura Chalkley, spokeswoman for the Oceanside Unified School District, said Oceanside High School students were told they could protest at the football stadium, but they declined.

Following the confrontation between law enforcement and students during lunch, some teenagers ran to another school gate, where some left campus to begin protesting. Among them was senior Jhonn Gijon, who said he emigrated illegally from Mexico at age 3 with his parents.

“We wanted to protest outside the school where people could see us,” said Gijon, who carried a Mexican flag and the message “Viva los Mexicanos” painted on his shirt. He said his mother earned pennies cleaning houses in Mexico, so she moved to America.

“We think it's unfair that they think they can restrict immigration,” he said. Parent Leah Wilson searched frantically for her son outside Oceanside High as the last students were being dismissed. She had became alarmed when she found that parts of Mission Avenue were blocked off by police, and she drove to the campus to find out what was occurring.

“Nobody's told me anything,” she said. “Nobody's called me. I don't know where my son is.”

Chalkley said that after the melee the school went into lockdown, and then students were dismissed early building by building. Lincoln Middle School also went into lockdown, Chalkley said.

Anticipating student protests yesterday, Oceanside police had set up a command post near Oceanside High at 7 a.m., asking even plain-clothes detectives to show up in uniform for backup.

“The rest of the city is operating with a skeleton crew right now,” Mata said.

About 20 sheriff's deputies and several California Highway Patrol officers were called in to help.

“We support the students' right to demonstrate peacefully and express their opinions; however, it's important they're in school,” Chalkley said.



Staff writers Mark Arner, Kristina Davis, Blanca Gonzalez, Karen Kucher, Maureen Magee, Chris Moran and Leonel Sanchez contributed to this report.