Student Protest Demands . . .<i> Homework</i> ? : Education: Foothill High students walk out to demonstrate their belief that they’re being cheated by the Tustin teacher-district impasse in contract talks.

As long as there has been school, students have created excuses to get out of homework. But at Foothill High School, about 1,000 students staged a demonstration Wednesday because they’re not getting enough.

Many of the school’s teachers stopped assigning homework last week to protest unresolved contract negotiations, and students say their education is being compromised as a result.

“We aren’t learning anything because there’s no homework,” said Megan Jensen, 17. “It’s like we’re in third grade again reading aloud in class. ‘Hamlet’ read aloud in class does not do it justice. . . . I’m not mad at the teachers and I don’t even know the board’s side of it, but I’m tired of my classes being useless. The teachers might as well be on strike.”

At 10:15 a.m., most of the 1,300 students remained in the quad area in the center of campus instead of going to third period.

The turnout was greater than organizers anticipated, possibly because of an earlier announcement over the public address system in which the principal, the student body president and a teacher’s union representative tried to talk the students out of holding the protest. Some students said they planned to go to third period but decided to join the protest after finding deserted classrooms.

The leaders of the demonstration plan to deliver a letter with 300 signatures to the superintendent urging the district and the union to quickly reach a contract agreement. The teachers have been working without a contract for 10 months.

Principal James Ryan, who called the demonstration “regrettable,” told students that they had made their point and urged them to return to class. Later he warned that students who stayed in the quad after 11:20 when fourth period started would be disciplined.

Some students began to disperse when the fourth-period buzzer sounded, but several hundred stayed behind.

“We just want to show that we have control over what we’re doing,” said Amrofell, who quietly returned to class 10 minutes later along with the other students.

Meanwhile, teachers in the Capistrano Unified School District are also planning to stop assigning homework this week to protest a stalemate in contract negotiations. The teachers union also called for an end to weekly student progress reports, after-hour student “help” sessions and teacher involvement in all extracurricular activities.

Times correspondent Frank Messina contributed to this story.