Immigration Protests

[queenoftheskies]

Did any of you folks have student walk-outs in your area as part of protests over immigration issues?

How about any of you southern California folks?

Yesterday, at lunch time, I was trapped on a San Gabriel Valley street for maybe 20 minutes while an enormous group of students crossed an intersection, waving flags, chanting, marching.

There were motorcycle officers following them, but I didn't see any rowdiness or anything bad.

They were just blocking streets as they marched.

When I picked up my youngest at school, he said a large number of students where he attends high school had walked out as well. I don't know if they marched or if they just walked out of class in protest.

I do know that the gates were locked and they were not allowed back in after the protests.

My son said one of the teachers told her class that this had happened before and that, once upon a time, students had been suspended for that. She thought that now, the students' parents were sent a bill for the money wasted by their students walking out that day.

I was just wondering if anyone else experienced this in their area and if they thought it made a difference or not.

Comments

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure exactly *which* part of the issue these kids were protesting about, but there were enough students who walked out and got rowdy at the local high school (ironically named after JFK) that police were called in to deal with them and keep them from rioting.

As it was, a few of those high school students went to the nearby middle school and got rowdy THERE - my neighbor's daughter, 13 years old, got punched in the stomach. She told me that kids were climbing over these 8 foot tall fences to get in. Some of them were aggressively protesting, the others were there to get their frightened middle school siblings OUT of the school. The middle school ended up "locking down", locking the front gates, etc.

What WERE they protesting exactly, anyway? And did any of them have a real idea of what they were protesting? Or were they just taking it as a chance to get lazy and leave school for the day?

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

Oh, and no, I don't think this sort of unorganized walk-out protest makes any real positive difference. For one thing, whichever kids they interviewed on the news had sad entitlement issues about who "deserves the American dream" and who doesn't. Where's that "Mexican Dream" anyway? Don't they care about improving their own educational system? Political system? etc?

It's a very confusing and confused issue, but at bottom, how open should the USA be to mass illegal immigration?

[rgbrobbie.livejournal.com]

La Puente High School had a walk-out yesterday; my mother was driving down Hacienda Blvd. on her way back from her doctor's and got caught in the chaos.

[aberrant1.livejournal.com]

No protests that I know of on this end of the country. I didn't even know what they were protesting until I read a news article this morning. I'm still not sure what side the students were on, if any.

[saycestsay.livejournal.com]

It isn't just SoCal... Detroit is joining us and I'd bet so are other areas, but the news won't report that.

The kids are being herded by the cops off the Vincent Thomas Bridge right now and that's a good idea, but the cops also just arrested about ten kids. The chance the kids take.

As for whether it helps or makes a positive difference... oh yeah. Congress is getting exposed on the various bills and counter-bills presented regarding the issue; the Republican version wants to make being an illegal alien a felony (which means they'd have no chance of later becoming a citizen.)

KTLA has the OCWeekly columnist who writes 'Ask A Mexican' on right now and he understands that the high school kids (who are mostly Americans) are protesting what they think is injustice against their parents.

("Amnesty for aliens... let's make them pay taxes." Amen.)

[kmkibble75.livejournal.com]

We didn't have anything like that around Philly, at least not that I know of. The ones in your area certainly made a splash, if only for the fact that it didn't seem like anyone expected them. It was pretty cool to see the kids making their opinions known, though.

[rclementmoore.livejournal.com]

Here in Dallas/Fort Worth we had an organized, civilized protest/walk out on Monday, which I respected. The students had signs, were well organized and brought the matter to the attention of clueless people like me. (I'm for border control--my mom cam here legally after a SIX YEAR wait. But there are things in that bill that make my blood run cold, like making it procecutable offence to give aid to illegals.)

Then yesterday there was a free for all, jump on the bandwagon broohaha. It was disorganized, several students were injured, and it looked like Spring Break as students piled on cars, ran screaming and laughing through City Hall, climbed all over the sculptures and played in the reflecting pool. When they interviewed these kids, none of them knew what they were proteseting, except that it was "something about disrespecting Mexicans." That turned a LOT of people away from their initially very valid point.