Lompoc chief issues apology to immigration protesters
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Deal would exonerate student protesters
By Mark Abramson/Staff Writer
A First Amendment battle between student protesters and Lompoc police is nearing a settlement that would require a public apology by police and city officials and civil rights training for police officers.
Thirty students, represented by California Rural Legal Assistance, say their constitutional right to free speech was violated when police quashed their protest of proposed immigration legislation March 31 at Lompoc High School.
Police, working in conjunction with the Lompoc Unified School District, cited 61 students for violating a city ordinance. Many of them were handcuffed as they walked out of school, some were detained in a school bus or patrol cars and released to their parents at the police department. None of them were allowed to return to class that day.
Similar protests erupted nationwide late in March. In Santa Maria, hundreds of students marched but police merely monitored the hours-long protest rather than arresting people to shut it down.
The Lompoc settlement, still unsigned, calls for a formal apology by city and police officials at a public meeting on Aug. 8, and the clearing of students' police records.
Police must also admit they were wrong, and provide officers training in the meaning of the First Amendment. Chief Bill Brown will represent the police department at the meeting.
City and police officials are waiting for the students' parents or guardians to sign the agreement before they approve it.
“Anything that exists that would show there was a detention of these students (by police) will be destroyed,” said Jeannie Barrett, a CRLA attorney. “Each student who got a citation will get a letter from the city indicating that.”
“The agreement is acceptable to the city because it will result in the dismissal of the lawsuit,” said Assistant City Attorney Matthew Granger said.
Granger and Brown declined to comment further on the agreement. It will not be final until everyone named in it signs it, including every City Council member, Granger added.
Barrett said police ignored a clause in the city's ordinance, Section 2103, which pertains to daylight loitering by minors. An exemption in that law allows students to exercise their First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and assembly.
Police said previously that the First Amendment exemption did not apply to the students. Police also said they did not consult the city attorney prior to taking action against the protesters.
Although police and city officials have agreed to the settlement, Lompoc Unified School District officials rejected it.
CRLA attorneys contend that the district is at fault because school officials asked for police help in quashing the protest. Police said they met with district officials March 30, the day before the planned march.
“Essentially, I think the school district believes they didn't do much of anything wrong and that it was all the fault of the police department,” Barrett said.
“In taking that position, I think they are ignoring things their staff did do. Among other things the school district furnished the bus that the police department used as the holding cell for students. The district asked the police to intervene, district staff got on the bus and harangued the students about how stupid they were being, and they refused to let the students back in class.”
According to Barrett, the school district's attorneys initially agreed to the proposed settlement, but the district rejected the agreement.
That action, she said, could subject the district to civil lawsuits by students and their parents. School district officials and their attorney declined to comment.
“The district said they were acting because they don't think kids should miss school, and they were kept out the whole day,” Barrett said. “It was because of their (the district's) action that it turned into this major event and they (students) missed the whole day. That was essentially a detention without any kind of due process.”
Mark Abramson can be reached at 737-1057 or mabramson@lompocrecord.com.