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Fresno Co. Student Protests Wane As Police Clamp Down on Truants

Posted on: Thursday, 30 March 2006, 09:00 CST

By Christina Vance, Denny Boyles, The Fresno Bee, Calif.

Mar. 30--Student protests of federal immigration reform efforts dwindled Wednesday when Fresno police surrounded campuses and detained 200 youngsters who left their schools.

On Monday and Tuesday, thousands of students across Fresno County walked out of their classrooms to express their views on immigration reform.

Of the 200 students police rounded up as truants Wednesday, 111 were from Fresno Unified schools, mostly from middle schools, Fresno police reported. High school students made up the bulk of protesters earlier in the week.

To discourage high school truancy, Police Chief Jerry Dyer posted a dozen officers around Fresno, McLane and Roosevelt high schools beginning at 7 a.m. Wednesday. Some students who began to leave their schools did an about-face upon spotting officers, Dyer said. Officers selected those schools because they had the highest numbers of walkouts Monday and Tuesday.

An estimated 700 Fresno Unified students walked out of school Monday. Fresno Unified officials didn't have exact truancy numbers compiled from Tuesday, but they provided absence rates for Tuesday compared with the previous Tuesday. Twenty-eight percent of the district's high school students were absent Tuesday, compared with 15% on March 21, district spokeswoman Erin Kennedy said. Nearly 5% of Fresno Unified's middle school students were absent Tuesday, compared with slightly more than 1% the previous Tuesday.

The district loses about $30-$33 in state attendance payments for each day a student is truant.

Students had planned another walkout Wednesday but were deterred by the presence of police, said Johanna Perez, a junior at Roosevelt who helped organize Monday's walkout. She said she now is encouraging fellow students to hold protests after school.

"We're not thinking of making any protests soon because of what they've cost," she said.

If students were caught off-campus, officers drove them to the Ted C. Wills Community Center on San Pablo Avenue near Belmont Avenue.

On arrival, students were asked a few questions by police and district officials, then sat on a gymnasium floor to wait for their parents. Fresno Unified spokeswoman Susan Bedi said that any students whose parents could not be reached were sent in groups back to their home schools for review of their attendance records.

District officials said students would be disciplined on a case-by-case basis. For example, a student protester with no previous discipline problems might get detention, but harsher punishments could be in store for students with long discipline histories.

Karmina Ramirez, 15, a student at Bullard High School, said she was caught with a group of about 40 other students as they gathered at Fresno City Hall.

"My friend was talking on my cell phone, and a policeman said the phone would be confiscated if we didn't turn it off. I think they were worried we were trying to get more students to leave school," Karmina said.

Lucy Eastwood, Karmina's mother, said she wasn't happy that her daughter had left school. Eastwood said she and her daughter drove to Los Angeles to take part in the massive rally last weekend, and she expected that would be enough for Karmina.

"We talked about it last night, and I told her not to leave school. I'm taking her back now, and she will be grounded for a month," Eastwood said.

Not every parent was upset by the protests. On Tuesday, Washington Union High School parent Rosalinda Garza praised the rain-soaked students who marched miles from their school to Fresno City Hall. She drove along to make sure they arrived safely.

"It was really raining. I'm proud of them. I was honking all the way," she said. "They proved their point, I think."

John Marinovich, Fresno Unified assistant superintendent for high schools, suggested that there are better ways for students to prove their points.

During lunchtime Wednesday, he said, schools offered voter registration information, ways to contact elected officials and "free speech zones" for students to voice their concerns.

The students' protests and the proposed immigration reform legislation sparked classroom discussions throughout the Central Valley, educators said.

"How could it not?" said Judith Swick, an American history and English teacher at Computech Middle School in southwest Fresno.

About 10 of her students were among about 30 from Computech who joined marchers Tuesday. She told those students to write a paper addressing both sides of the issue, explaining their perspective and how they exercised their constitutional rights.

At Fresno High, Principal Bob Reyes said some discussions between teachers and students about the protests focused on explaining that federal legislators will decide on the law and that officials at Fresno City Hall, where protesters marched, have no role.

"You use it as a teachable moment," Reyes said.

At Clovis West High School, dozens of students were ready to walk out of school again in protest Wednesday morning but administrators persuaded them to gather instead in the cafeteria, said Deputy Principal Ben Drati.

Drati said teachers were urged to remain neutral during class discussions on the legislation.

"The last thing I want is some disruption in class because of this," Drati said.

Drati estimated that 50 to 60 students marched out of Clovis West on Tuesday, many catching a bus near Blackstone and Herndon avenues to go downtown.

On Wednesday, students made posters and organized information tables and petition-signing in the cafeteria. At lunch, students signed a huge poster on the wall that said "A Nation of Immigrants."

Ulysses Lomeli, a 15-year-old freshman at Clovis West, said students wanted to be available in the cafeteria to educate other students about the proposed bill: "They don't know what's going on."

Ulysses said most of his relatives live in Mexico and the proposed legislation could affect his family.

About 60 Kingsburg High School students who walked out of class Wednesday will have to write an essay on the immigration bill as part of their punishment, Assistant Principal Doug Davis said.

Wednesday's walkout was the first for Kingsburg students, Davis said. They left at 9 a.m., marched around town, continued to Selma and agreed to return to school around lunchtime. Superintendent Linda Clark, who is also the school's principal, met the students when the bus brought them back. Davis said Clark will read their immigration essays.

Walkouts continued Wednesday in districts countywide. Forty-seven Caruthers Unified students were picked up as truants, and 20 to 40 Parlier High School students walked off school grounds. About a dozen students left Reedley High School and returned later in the day.

Students also walked out at Redwood High School in Visalia, and at Hanford West High School.

Dyer said Fresno police would continue extra truancy enforcement this week, and he hoped the student encounters would remain peaceful.

Said Dyer: "We do not want to create an environment or a circumstance where things escalate because of our contact."

The reporters can be reached at cvance@fresnobee.com, dboyles@fresnobee.com, aellis@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6330.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Fresno Bee, Calif.

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Source: The Fresno Bee

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