Fresno Police Officers Head Off Big Walkouts
By Christina Vance, The Fresno Bee, Calif.
Apr. 1–Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer said Friday that "massive walkouts" planned by students were prevented by the presence of police officers.
Acting on information in confiscated text messages and fliers, Dyer said he assigned 165 officers to watch school campuses and patrol Friday after a week of student-led walkout protests against proposed federal immigration reforms.
Dyer also accused adult activists of trying to goad students into leaving their classes.
Police released copies of one confiscated message that encouraged student protesters to stop walkouts Wednesday and Thursday and "let the school teachers, police men and government think that we students have stopped protesting."
The message called for mass walkouts Friday after first period.
Hundreds, maybe thousands, of students would have tried to leave their schools if not for officers around high schools and middle schools throughout the city, Dyer said.
Fresno High student Carina Castro confirmed that students had agreed to lie low before walking out again Friday.
Carina said she tried to leave school Friday morning, along with about 100 others.
"We almost did it," she said. "We thought that if we had enough people we could make it."
Carina said police quickly surrounded them, and the students decided to turn back. At one point, students saw a bus and thought it might be full of police officers, she said.
Instead of marching around town, the Fresno High students marched around school grounds for part of the morning.
By lunchtime, they returned to class, according to Fresno Unified spokeswoman Erin Kennedy.
Dyer said Fresno High was the hardest school to monitor, and he said it didn’t help that adult activists were outside the school encouraging the students to leave.
"I personally think that many of these children are being exploited by these adults to be their voice," Dyer said.
Solomon Rivera, executive director of the education reform group Californians for Justice, said he was at Fresno High for about an hour along with members of some other groups.
Rivera said he didn’t see anyone encouraging students to walk out.
Rather, Rivera said, his group monitored students to make sure they were safe. He praised the walkouts as historic.
"We wanted to make sure they were safe from the police because it seemed like a pretty heavy-handed approach," he said.
Fresno High wasn’t the only school where police discouraged a large walkout.
About 220 Cooper Middle School students tried to leave Friday, but Dyer said officers persuaded them to stay.
On Friday morning at Roosevelt High, Everardo Segura dropped his sister-in-law Juanita Parra off at class.
Segura, along with Juanita’s mom, Maria, went downtown to find Juanita when they realized she was truant.
"She was ditching," he said. "We saw her walking with a couple of her friends."
Segura said Juanita participated in protests all week.
"The first two days, it was OK," he said. "They’re just walking to walk now. They’re just finding excuses to leave school."
But other parents gave their children permission to protest.
Ana Rodriguez dropped her son off downtown to participate.
She said the Clovis East High School freshman hadn’t joined in previous protests.
"If they believe in it, why not encourage them?" she said.
Her son ended up getting rounded up by Fresno police and brought to Holmes Recreation Center, one of two temporary truancy centers.
Police drove Victoria Lopez, an Edison High School sophomore, to the truancy center with two of her cousins.
The group had avoided school grounds completely and met downtown Friday morning.
They headed toward Roosevelt High School to try to join other students.
Instead, police surrounded them about 11 a.m. at the corner of Kings Canyon Road and Maple Avenue.
Victoria thought students’ concerns were being heard, but she still wanted to protest Friday. "I’m just representing all these Mexicans," she said.
Dyer said police detained 220 truant students Friday. Most of them were from Sunnyside High School and Tehipite Middle School.
Friday’s protests remained peaceful, although Dyer said a parent shoved an officer at one of the truancy centers and was cited for battery.
Kennedy said Fresno Unified officials considered Friday’s operation with police a success.
She said schools would continue to try to find ways for students to express their concerns. For example, Assembly Member Juan Arambula spoke to Fresno High students Friday.
"Kids are passionate. They believe their parents are going to be deported," Kennedy said. "That’s a scary thing for a kid."
The reporter can be reached at cvance@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6197.
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Copyright (c) 2006, The Fresno Bee, Calif.
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