Young Protesters Cut Class

To about 100 seventh- and eighth-graders at Marine View School, the thought of losing their annual trip to Yosemite National Park and Catalina Island because of a teacher slowdown was simply too much to bear. So the students took matters in their own hands Friday by staging a walkout and skipping a class.

“We think some savvy eighth-graders are to blame for this,” said Principal Robert G. Vouga, who managed to persuade all but 12 students to return to the afternoon session. “Besides, the sun was out and it was a nice warm day. I guess they couldn’t resist.”

After a morning of huddling at lockers to discuss strategy, the students walked out at 10:45 a.m. just as the bells rang to signal the end of third-period class.

“We just grabbed our backpacks and made for the doors,” said 13-year-old Bonnie Beal, an eighth-grader.

The main source of the students’ frustration is the possibility that their annual May trip to Yosemite Park and Catalina Island--which is part of the school’s outdoor education curriculum--might be canceled because some teachers may refuse to go on the excursions. Eighth-graders at the school had raised $250 each for the trip by selling magazines and working at such jobs as baby-sitting.

Marine View is part of the Ocean View School District, which is locked in a bitter contract dispute with its teachers. Some teachers have threatened to withhold volunteer duties for extracurricular activities, jeopardizing such programs as the districtwide science fair.

Contract talks have been deadlocked over health benefits, use of funds from the state lottery earmarked for education and teacher participation in the decision-making process.

Because of the dispute, Vouga said, this year’s field trips to Yosemite and Catalina may have to be canceled.

“The trips are in jeopardy. We may not be able to get enough teachers to volunteer,” Vouga said.

The walkout grabbed the attention of some parents, who heard about it when their children called them asking for permission to take time off from school.

Ed Whitting advised his daughter, Shannon, a 13-year-old eighth-grader, to make up her own mind to walk out if she thought it was for the right reason. She decided to walk.

“Personally, I thought it was a kick,” the father said. “I wouldn’t want her to do this all the time. But when she gets older, she can look back and say, ‘I walked out in eighth grade.’ ”

But there will be punishment for the students who participated, Vouga said. They will have to make up the lost class time by attending after-school detention. The walkout, however, will not appear on their transcripts.

But some students said the stakes were worth the penalty.

“I rather stay after school than miss Yosemite,” Bonnie Beal said.