High Schoolers Demonstrate Anti-War Sentiments : Protest: 100 Capistrano Valley students stage peaceful rallies against gulf buildup.

Waving placards that read “Kuwait is Arabic for Vietnam,” “Don’t turn the Persian Gulf into the Red Sea,” and “Make love, not war,” about 100 Capistrano Valley High School students on Wednesday staged two peaceful anti-war protests on campus and along nearby Marguerite Parkway.

“Oil is not worth anybody dying for under any circumstances,” said Chantel Vasquez, an organizer of the early morning and lunchtime demonstrations. The 17-year-old senior was wearing a 1960s-vintage peace symbol necklace, a present from her father.

She said the students are afraid the current U.S. military buildup in Saudi Arabia is a prelude to an invasion of Iraq and all-out war. Rather than waging war to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Vasquez said, the United States should continue to enforce the United Nations-backed embargo against Iraq.

“The kids who are out here protesting are not just the radicals and the druggies,” Vasquez said. “The homecoming queen and pep squad members are out here, too. Most of us are seniors. A lot of us are turning 18, our brothers are turning 18 and we don’t want them to die. The public needs to be aware that we don’t want things to happen to our generation that happened to other generations in the past.”

The students, some dressed in ‘60s-style tie-dyed T-shirts, marched in front of the school and along Marguerite Parkway chanting, “One, two, three, four, we don’t want no bloody war!” One protester wrote “war” beneath the word “stop” on a campus parking lot stop sign.

As the students marched, several drivers passing by flashed peace signs.

Jeff Baker and Stephanie Lawrence were even more blunt.

“Our government is run by the rich oil companies,” said Baker, an 18-year-old senior. “We could be using methanol in our country, instead they want to keep us using foreign oil. If we were using methanol, we would be paying money to our own poor farmers instead of these foreign countries.”

“Why should we be protecting a country (Saudi Arabia) where women aren’t even allowed to drive?” added Lawrence, 17, a senior.

Principal Tom Anthony said he received some negative comments about the protesters from faculty members who believed that the demonstrations were offending students and school employees who have relatives stationed in Saudi Arabia.

“But as long as they don’t interrupt the school or the educational process” the students would be allowed to demonstrate, he said. He added, however, that students who skipped class to protest would face routine disciplinary action, which could include suspensions and being forced to attend special Saturday morning classes.

Orange County sheriff’s deputies twice stopped at the protest to warn the demonstrators to stay out of the street, but no arrests were made or citations issued.

The protesters did not draw much open hostility, although one group of boys appeared briefly on a hill above them and shouted, “Communists!”

Students watching the demonstration seemed evenly divided on the country’s Persian Gulf strategy, although most admired their classmates’ action.

“It takes guts for (the protesters) to do what they are doing, but we need to take some action” in the gulf, said Aaron Delesie, a 17-year-old junior.