Thousands Get High on Bush’s Stadium Visit : Rally: Excitement and anti-drug sentiment ran strong among the 13,000 spectators at event featuring the President --and Rams cheerleaders.

If there were any drug peddlers near Santa Ana Stadium on Friday, they probably weren’t doing much business.

About 13,000 people, ranging from elementary school students to adults in wool suits, chanted anti-drug slogans until they were hoarse during a rally for President Bush.

“Just Say No!” they shouted in unison with the Los Angeles Rams cheerleaders. “No Drugs!” they screamed when prompted by Rams quarterback Jim Everett. Anti-drug banners and signs encircled the field, and several thousand students on the field and in the stands feverishly waved yellow and red flags imprinted with the name of the foundation that sponsored the rally: Drug Use Is Life Abuse.

Even a portable toilet at the back of the stadium was decorated for the day with a banner proclaiming it to be “Drug Free.”

“I want everyone in Orange County to hear you,” Everett yelled to the crowd, just before introducing the President, and the crowd managed to make itself heard for several blocks, at least.

Up front, just behind the VIP seating, was a group of students from Santa Ana’s Taft School for the hearing-impaired. Page Syverson, a teacher from Lakewood, interpreted each speaker’s words into sign language for the students, and they were getting the message.

“Maybe the President will say ‘No to Drugs!’ ” said an excited Nicky Anglin, 11, in sign language.

The day was full of excitement for all the students, most of whom were bused to the event from Santa Ana schools. They listened to Vickie di Pascuale, a secretary in the Sheriff’s Department drug education unit clad in a white dress and a saucy black hat, belt out a soulful rendition of “God Bless America.” They joined their district superintendent, Rudy M. Castruita, and Santa Ana Mayor Daniel E. Young, in some self-congratulatory cheers.

“You are the winners!” Young yelled, and the crowd gave a deafening response. “Stand up and be proud!”

They listened to Chuck Norris plug his next film, “Delta Force 2,” in which he takes on the Colombian drug cartel. They watched karate champion Jeff Smith’s students perform martial arts routines and break wooden boards to the accompaniment of rock music. They heard the Mariachi Jalisco play a few Mexican folk songs. And they laughed as impressionist Fred Travelina delivered anti-drug messages in the voices of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Eddie Murphy, Clint Eastwood, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Michael Jackson and the president himself.

But the students knew why they were really there.

“The only way people will listen not to take drugs is if the President comes and says that,” said Antonia Soria, 10, a fifth-grader at Monte Vista Elementary School.

Another fifth-grader, Tasha Miles of Lincoln Elementary School, said she thought it was “great that we have this opportunity” to see the President. Were her friends who couldn’t be at the stadium jealous? “I guess some of them are,” she said.

The event came off without any major problems. At one point before the rally began, though, firefighters stopped students from entering the stadium because they could not get an accurate count of the crowd inside, said John Bennett, assistant superintendent for elementary schools in the Santa Ana Unified School District. The situation was resolved, but district administrators feared that some kids might get turned away.

“We got a little panicky,” Bennett said.

Other students and teachers were disappointed because the field area they were assigned to was behind a raised platform for the media horde covering the event, blocking their view of the stage.

“This is kind of corny, and the kids are upset,” said Hank Montelongo, a teacher at McFadden Intermediate School, which was the only school allowed to bring its entire student body to the rally because of its national scholastic honors. “The VIPs are sitting up there, where they can see. That’s where the kids should be.”

Outside the stadium, office workers mingled in the street on their lunch hours to hear the President through loudspeakers. Police shut off entrances to the stadium at 11:15 a.m., about an hour before the President arrived.

“It’s the President. Of course I’m going to listen to what he has to say,” said Anthony Gutierrez, 29, a federal government employee. “I mean, how many times is that going to happen in Santa Ana? I think it’s great that he’s out here trying to get these kids to try to get their act together.”

Jurors who were deliberating a civil case in the nearby federal courthouse took a break to come and listen to the President. The group arrived in plenty of time to get into the stadium before entrances were sealed off.

“We took a vote this morning, and the majority wanted to come and see the President,” said Laurie Figueroa, a juror from Trabuco Canyon. “Any time you’re deliberating, you get to make your own schedule.”

Laguna Niguel entrepreneur Steven Mellgren hoped to sell about 900 T-shirts at $9 each commemorating the President’s visit. He was granted the contract to hawk his brightly lettered T-shirts at a stand inside the gate on the condition he donate proceeds from the first 400 sold to the Drug Use Is Life Abuse campaign.

Mellgren said it took him about an hour to get his boxes of T-shirts through the security officials, who searched the boxes, ran them through metal detectors and had bomb squad dogs sniff them.

Staff writers Rose Ellen O’Connor and Tony Marcano contributed to this report.