Student protesters invade City Hall

Hundreds ordered back to class as patience wears thin

09:32 PM CST on Tuesday, March 28, 2006

By KENT FISCHER, EMILY RAMSHAW and KATHERINE LEAL UNMUTH / The Dallas Morning News

Students from a dozen North Texas school districts walked out of class again Tuesday, joining a series of protests nationwide that some observers say is one of the largest student demonstrations in a decade.

The second day of protests in Dallas was bigger and tenser than Monday's rally at Dallas City Hall. On Tuesday, several hundred students stormed the lobby of City Hall and disrupted a council meeting with their chants and rowdiness. Authorities shut down the building's elevators while they corralled protesters in the lobby.

By day's end, the patience of civic and school leaders had clearly worn thin.

DISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa warned students late Tuesday that further protests could lead to in-school suspensions, parent conferences or even truancy arrests.

"I'm very proud of the issues that have been raised," Dr. Hinojosa said. "But leaving school without permission is a defiance of authority. Learning takes place in the classroom."

Students were again marking their opposition to proposed federal legislation that would make illegal immigration a felony. The protests, occurring in several cities, are the biggest of their kind in years, some experts say. They show how intensely younger Hispanics – even those born in the U.S. – are affected by the immigration debate.

"Saying it's national at this point is probably an overstatement, but it's certainly regional and is spreading," said Louis DeSipio, an associate professor in Chicano/Latino studies and political science at the University of California at Irvine.

On Monday, about 36,000 students from 25 Los Angeles County school districts walked out of class, with more than 1,000 protesting outside Los Angeles City Hall. Other protests were reported Tuesday in Houston, Phoenix, Las Vegas and Detroit.

Local students said they were not intent on making trouble. Marisol Garcia, 18, a student at DISD's Spruce High School, said many students were speaking for their parents.

"People are here for the issue," Ms. Garcia said. "A lot of them have parents here illegally, and they want change."

Tension ran high at times at City Hall as police edged the crowd back with cruisers, motorcycles and a barricade of uniformed officers. School administrators snapped at one another over the roaring cheers, questioning how soon buses would arrive to take students back to their campuses. Some tried to persuade key students to help them calm the crowd.

"Look around. Hay mucha policia. There's a lot of police," DISD administrator Rene Martinez implored an argumentative teen. "There are a lot of thugs out there. They're out of control. This is a safety issue."

"We're trying to calm them down," the student answered. "We didn't mean for it to get this big."

Later, many teens waded into the plaza's reflecting pool and climbed on its modern art sculpture.

Kerry Vargas, 14, said some kids were running around not sure what they were protesting, but a lot knew, repeating the phrase, "Latinos Stand Up," a call to action from a song that is also the name of a Hispanic student group at Irving' s Nimitz High School.

"My family came here and worked really hard," said Ms. Vargas, a student at the Academy of Irving ISD. "America isn't just one race. They shouldn't do this to us because we are a large part of the economy."

Dallas city spokesman Celso Martinez said the area surrounding City Hall's reflecting pool will be fenced off today to ensure easy access to the building and to prevent people from jumping in the pool.

Although Monday's protest involved mostly students from Dallas schools, Tuesday's included several hundred students from neighboring districts. Many who marched on City Hall took a train in from Irving schools, for example. An Irving district spokesman estimated that 1,000 students walked out of class.

Students at some North Texas schools held protests and rallies on their campuses or in their towns. The Arlington school district reported that 800 students walked out of classes, and more than 500 students gathered on the football field at Arlington High School for a peaceful demonstration.

About 100 Lancaster High students marched nearly three miles from the high school to CiCi's Pizza on Pleasant Run Road. Buses ferried them back to school.

Nearly 600 students from Grand Prairie showed up at Kiest Park and stayed about two hours, Dallas police said. About 40 officers were on hand.

An estimated 200 students walked out of classes at Mesquite High School and Mesquite North High School. The students left at 9 a.m. and vowed to march about 10 miles to downtown Dallas.

Students from Fort Worth's Polytechnic High School walked from their school to City Hall in Fort Worth. They were joined by hundreds of students from Burleson and Arlington.

About 250 students walked out of Denton High School.

Kiest Park was one rallying point for many local students.

"The students met at a park near the high school, organized and then helped spread the word to friends at other schools," said 16-year-old Spruce High student Ricardo Calderon. "We had it planned."

Some parents dropped their children off at the park so they could catch a ride downtown.

About 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, hundreds of Irving students poured off the TRE train into downtown Dallas. They were joined at City Hall by students from Arlington, Grand Prairie and other districts.

Mauricio Aquino, 17, from Irving High School, said many of his friends are following the issue.

"It's not that we want to skip school," he said. "We want to defend our pride. We don't want to be seen as criminals."

The Senate was set to take up a bill Tuesday that will determine the legal future of the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the United States illegally.

Legislation approved by the House would make it a felony to be in the U.S. illegally, impose new penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants and build fences along part of the U.S.-Mexico border.

While some local school districts gave protesting students a free pass Monday, they took a firmer stand Tuesday. Many questioned whether the students knew what they were protesting.

"Basically, we're just baby-sitting a bunch of kids who have found another excuse to get out of school," said Detective John Brimmer, a Grand Prairie police spokesman.

Grand Prairie school district spokesman Sam Buchmeyer said students who left campuses would not be allowed back in class Tuesday and must bring a parent to be readmitted today.

Mesquite officials said some of the students probably follow the immigration issue closely. But, said Ian Halperin, a district spokesman, "we suspect that most of the kids who walked out are just going along with the pack and taking a day off from school."

By the end of the day, even Hispanic leaders were telling students enough was enough.

"We're telling them to stay in school," said Jesse Diaz, president of the Dallas United Latin American Citizens Council 4496. "It's very emotional, and their emotions are taking over. The kids are doing this on their own. There is no adult leadership."

He urged students passionate about the issue to join a community march scheduled for April 9.

Student protest leaders joined adults at a late-afternoon City Hall news conference to urge fellow students to stay in class.

"It was dangerous, what we did today," said Briceida Villaruel, a student at W.T. White High School. "We said everything we wanted to. Now we need to stay in school in order to get our educations."

Staff writers Toya Stewart, Kimberly Durnan, Andrew Smith, Kim Breen, Kathy A. Goolsby, Holly Hacker, Debra Dennis, Herb Booth and Marissa Alanis and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

E-mail kfischer@dallasnews.com