Prop. 187 Sparks More Student Walkouts in Southland : Demonstrations: Several hundred protest at El Camino High against immigration initiative.

The wave of high school walkouts in protest of Proposition 187 continued throughout Southern California on Friday, and in one case the demonstrations turned turbulent, as sheriff’s deputies used two non-lethal rubber grenades to disperse a crowd of protesters in Paramount.

It was the second consecutive Friday marked by student anti-187 demonstrations. A week before, about 1,500 students from junior and senior high schools in Los Angeles and several of its southeastern suburbs left their classrooms to demonstrate against the controversial proposition.

At El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, several hundred students voiced their opposition to the measure in a morning demonstration. At Jordan High in Watts, about 200 students demonstrated in a morning walkout. And about 300 students walked out of classes at Pacific Palisades and Lincoln high schools.

The measure’s best-known provisions would bar illegal immigrants from public schooling, non-emergency health care and social services. Proponents say the measure would help curb continuing, large-scale illegal immigration. Opponents consider the measure to be poorly drafted and a xenophobic invitation to harass the foreign-born.

Los Angeles Unified School District officials, who have hired outside counsel to advise them on how to deal with the measure if it is approved Nov. 8, said they support the students’ First Amendment rights to free speech. But they said teachers and administrators should encourage students to return to classes to avoid being marked truant.

In Costa Mesa, about 100 students walked out of Estancia High School at about 1 p.m. Friday and marched peacefully down the street shouting, “Viva la raza!” and “Mexico, Mexico, Mexico!”

About 200 Oxnard students walked out of Rio Mesa High School Friday morning and marched several miles toward Oxnard High School, protesting against the proposition.

Deputies used “stingball” grenades shortly before 4 p.m. to disperse a crowd of 450 to 500 people who gathered at Hunsaker Avenue and Alondra Boulevard in Paramount, said Sheriff’s Sgt. Ron Spear.

No one was injured by the stingballs--explosive devices that hurl rubber pellets meant to inflict pain without injury as a crowd control tactic--and there were no arrests, Spear said.

Students from Paramount walked out of classes shortly after 9 a.m., deputies said, and went to Dominguez High School, about two miles away.

Dominguez Principal Fred Easter said the march was peaceful, and deputies had the protesters under surveillance. The marchers walked from the Dominguez campus to Jordan High School in Long Beach, and returned to Dominguez at lunch time, he said.

Authorities blocked the intersection of Hunsaker and Alondra near the Dominguez campus, but the students were not cooperative when police attempted to disperse them, Easter said.

He said most of the demonstrators were from Paramount High School, but that some Dominguez students were involved.

The demonstrators began with about 50 students, Spear said, but by 3:45 p.m. their march had picked up another 400 students and adults.

In Costa Mesa, Estancia High School junior Carlos Hernandez said, “I think (Proposition 187) is just an excuse to get us (Latinos) out of here.”

Roy Alvarado, a drug counselor at the school who tried unsuccessfully to persuade students not to leave, said he nevertheless supported their protest. If Proposition 187 passes, he said, “It’s just going to explode. . . . You’re targeting the kids as a vehicle to get to a bigger problem, and that’s not right.”

Demonstrating students in Oxnard hoisted a Mexican flag and chanted “No on 187!”

The students marched a block from Oxnard High before they were stopped by police. They then retreated to Plaza Park in downtown Oxnard, where police put them on school buses that took them home.

Oxnard Union High School District officials, worried that students at Oxnard High would join the march, asked police to detain the protesters before they reached school grounds.

The march was generally peaceful, police said, although a few students threw rocks at passing cars, and many ripped election signs from the streets as they walked by, converting them into anti-Proposition 187 posters.

Too young to vote, the students said they were expressing their opinion on the controversial ballot measure the only way they could. Most of the protesters were Latino.

“Most of our friends and family are undocumented people,” said 15-year-old Rosie Collazo, as she marched down Central Avenue. “Maybe we’re a bunch of high school students, but we know what we’re doing.”

Both high schools are part of the Oxnard Union High School District, which is 55% Latino.

Community correspondent Alan Erely in Costa Mesa contributed to this story.