Students at 2 Pacoima Schools Protest Prop. 187

Hundreds of middle school students walked out of classes Thursday to protest Proposition 187, the controversial ballot measure barring illegal immigrants from public schools and other social services.

The morning walkouts at Maclay and Pacoima Middle Schools were peaceful, police and school officials said. Carrying an anti-187 banner and a Mexican flag, about 300 Maclay students left their classrooms about 9:10 a.m., shortly after first period, according to school police. About 40 students did not return to school.

Cecilia Costas, principal at Maclay in Pacoima, said she found out about Thursday’s walkout from parents who called the school. She said that the students and their parents misunderstand the schools’ role in Proposition 187 and that some students believe that they will be expelled Nov. 8--Election Day.

“I think the kids are terribly misinformed,” Costas said. “We have to do a lot more work in the community . . . to inform people.”

Students from other campuses across the Los Angeles Unified School District have also protested Proposition 187 in recent weeks by leaving classes. Also Thursday, students attempted to leave the Bravo Medical Magnet near downtown, but school administrators and police locked the gates and kept the students on campus, said Richard Page, assistant chief of the Los Angeles school district police.

On Wednesday, about 200 students marched the perimeter of El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, and last week, hundreds of students walked out of classes at Huntington Park, Bell, South Gate, Los Angeles and Fremont high schools.

“We expect this to continue until Election Day,” Page said. “I think they (the students) want to draw attention to the issue . . . but we’re going to make efforts to keep them on campus.”

Although most of the protests have been calm, police said that some students in South Gate last week became unruly, throwing rocks and bottles at a school police car, and that one student took a case of beer from a nearby liquor store.

School administrators and police plan to meet next week to discuss how to deal with potential problems if the ballot measure passes. Several high schools are holding meetings for students before the election to dispel rumors that the school system would be checking citizenship status.

In addition, the school board has hired outside counsel to deal with legal questions that would arise should the proposition pass.

The ballot measure calls for schools to verify students’ legal status and ultimately to report illegal students and their parents to authorities. The Los Angeles Board of Education has voted to oppose the measure and expects to join in legal challenges if it passes.

School district Police Chief Wes Mitchell said he does not expect students to becomeviolent but that school police must maintain order on campuses. “We don’t really expect an outbreak of unrest or disobedience if it passes,” he said. “The kids in this district . . . have become real educated and sophisticated in the art of civil demonstrations.”

District officials say that although they believe that an outside group is responsible for organizing the student walkouts, they are unsure which group.

Said Bill Rivera, school district spokesman: “They’re clearly being organized by (someone) outside the district.”

Scott Macdonald, spokesman for Taxpayers Against 187, said that his group does not support the protests and that the students are sending the wrong message to voters.

“We do not believe this educates the voters about the problems of 187; we believe it distracts them,” Macdonald said. “We encourage kids to stay in school--that’s one of the things this is all about.”

At Maclay, 13-year-old Martha Lopez was accompanied to the impromptu protest by her mother.

“People went back (to the school) because the cops took them back,” Martha said. “Blacks, whites, everyone was with us.”

Through an interpreter, her mother said she supported her daughter’s protest.

Some of the Maclay students marched to Pacoima Middle School to encourage students there to walk out, school administrators said. School police said about 100 Pacoima students walked out, but administrators said the number was lower.

The Maclay and Pacoima students disrupted classes for a time by bangingon classroom doors and chanting, said Maria Wale, Pacoima Middle School principal.

“We talked with them about ways in which they can protest, but not when it disrupts the education program,” Wale said.

Although school district officials said they thought that the impetus for the walkouts at Maclay and Pacoima middle schools was to demonstrate against Proposition 187, they said they thought that many students left class to join friends and disrupt the school day.

Proposition 187--dubbed by supporters the Save Our State initiative--would prevent undocumented immigrants from attending public schools and receiving non-emergency health care and other social services. The federal government has threatened to withhold funding from the state’s school districts if the measure is approved.

District officials plan to release today a breakdown of how much money that could mean to individual schools, but previous estimates showed that the district could lose more than $450 million.