20 Students Arrested After Protest Becomes Violent : El Rio: Sheriff’s deputies sweep across Rio Mesa campus during the demonstration against a new tardiness policy.

Sheriff’s deputies arrested 20 Rio Mesa High School students Tuesday during a demonstration over a new tardy policy viewed by protesters as unfair and heavy-handed.

More than 150 students walked out of class about 9 a.m. to take part in the protest, which started as a peaceful demonstration but turned violent within half an hour when students shattered windows and refused to return to class.

By 10 a.m., 20 sheriff’s patrol cars and six California Highway Patrol units had converged on the El Rio campus with their lights flashing and sirens screaming.

A Sheriff’s Department helicopter pilot circled overhead and commanded students to go back to class.

Two columns of sheriff’s deputies wearing riot helmets then swept across the campus, arresting anyone out of class. Those students were bound in plastic hand restraints and booked into Ventura County Jail on suspicion of unlawful assembly and failure to disperse.

“We wanted to give the kids every chance to get to class,” said Rio Mesa Principal Eric Ortega, noting that he warned students three times before calling the officers. “I felt that we needed to bring in the Sheriff’s Department because it was getting out of hand.”

Four windows were broken, Ortega said, and two students suffered minor injuries when they cut themselves on broken shards of glass.

All but four of the students arrested are minors, and their identities were not made public. Also arrested were Eric Estrada and Ryan Genest of Camarillo and Joel Quinones and Jose Abarca of Oxnard. All four are 18 years old.

The students were issued citations and released to their parents.

Ortega said that with the exception of Genest, all of those arrested were suspended for 2 1/2 days. Ortega said Genest was suspended for five days for allegedly shoving a teacher during the disturbance.

“All of our rights have been totally violated,” said Genest, sitting with Estrada in the back seat of a patrol car. “It was a peaceful demonstration and it got a little out of hand. They’re blowing it way out of proportion.”

Genest denied shoving a teacher during the demonstration.

Added Estrada referring to the new tardy policy: “There’s a new rule every month. It’s so sad, we can’t do anything anymore.”

Students said they began organizing the demonstration about a week ago to coincide with the day the new policy would go into effect. Under the new rules, students who are late to class twice receive one hour of detention after school. On the sixth infraction they have to attend school on Saturday and on the 10th they are dropped from class.

In the past, Ortega said, teachers have crafted their own tardy policies.

But he said a group of teachers, parents and students began designing the new rules last spring when the Western Assn. of Schools and Colleges, a statewide accreditation group that evaluates school curricula, recommended that Rio Mesa establish a schoolwide tardy policy.

Ortega said he is willing to listen to students’ complaints, but said he believes the new policy is more than fair. And he said he did not object to the demonstration until it got out of control.

“My thinking was that if it was peaceful, the kids could stay out,” Ortega said. “I thought, until it turned destructive, we could have had them in by third period.”

As deputies prepared to sweep the campus, groups of students roamed the hallways, cursing the new policy and jeering at school officials.

Some students waved fluorescent orange signs scribbled with “Cox 4 Principal,” a reference to popular English teacher Randy Cox. Estrada wore one of those signs on his T-shirt.

But Cox, who said he was shaken by the uprising, said he did not organize the demonstration and did not lend his name to the walkout or ensuing protest.

“I didn’t even know what was going on out there,” said Cox, noting that he has a tougher tardy policy than the one adopted by school officials. “My name was used completely without my permission. This, in fact, ironically cripples what I’ve been trying to do.”

After learning about the disturbance, anxious parents maneuvered around CHP roadblocks and stormed into the high school parking lot looking for their children.

El Rio resident Fred Ramos arrived to pick up his 14-year-old daughter, Francine. He said a neighbor told him about the trouble on campus and that was enough for him to decide to pull her from school four hours early.

As deputies marched through the school parking lot, Ramos said he approved of the show of force.

“I’d like to send a message,” he said. “We’ve never had trouble before and there’s no reason for this to be going on. We don’t need this here.”

At county jail, a group of parents sat in a half-circle on the floor waiting for their children to be released. They talked about students who regularly make the honor roll, and about children who never before have been in trouble at school.

“Our kids are not problem kids,” said Barbara Ulmer. “They are not troublemakers.”

About 2 p.m., 14-year-old Jessica Toves was released after being fingerprinted and photographed. Hours earlier, her mother, Shirley Toves, was having lunch in a cafeteria at Point Mugu Naval Air Weapons Station when a co-workers told her Jessica had been arrested.

“She was sick last night and I should’ve kept her out of school,” Toves said. “I thought 1993 would be a better year.”

Jessica argued that she had a right to demonstrate against the new policy. She told her mother that she was arrested for standing up for what she believes.

“We didn’t do nothing wrong,” the freshman insisted. “Do you have to tell my dad?”