ELECTIONS / PROPOSITION 187 : Anti-Initiative Demonstration Takes Peaceful Turn in Fillmore

The scene was familiar--hundreds of marchers leaving a high school, waving signs and chanting slogans against Proposition 187.

But Saturday’s demonstration in Fillmore was also very different.

The protesters, numbering about 200, included not only the usual high school students but also teachers, parents, grandparents and toddlers.

The mounted Ventura County sheriff’s deputies policing the march had exchanged their customary riot helmets for baseball caps.

And unlike recent protests in Oxnard marred by rock-throwing and fights, Saturday’s event in Fillmore began with a prayer, proceeded peacefully along a planned route and ended with no arrests.

The Fillmore protest march took place on a weekend so students could attend without skipping school, organizers said. It also allowed entire families to spend a sunny day together working against the ballot measure, which would deny illegal immigrants most government services, including public education.

Protesters made no apologies for their status as weekend warriors.

Elena Valenzuela, 17, a Fillmore High School senior who helped organize the protest, said walking out of school would have sent the wrong message.

“We did not want to walk out of classes because that’s the opposite of what we are fighting for, which is our education,” Elena said. “How could we be fighting for our education if we do walkouts?”

The peaceful weekend protest drew praise from adults. “They acted in a very mature manner,” said Fillmore High School Principal Lynn Johnson, who joined the march. Fillmore schools Supt. Mario V. Contini and City Councilman Scott Lee also walked with the protesters.

The procession began in the high school parking lot with a prayer offered by the Rev. Jim Higgins of St. Francis of Assisi Church. As the marchers joined hands in a circle, Higgins told the walkers to “show peacefulness . . . to be a good example to our community.”

The protesters marched about 2 1/2 miles, from the high school parking lot, through the mostly Latino neighborhood of north Fillmore, past orange groves and new housing tracts to City Hall and Central Park.

Some pushed strollers, others waved Mexican and American flags. Shepherded on their way by mounted deputies and student leaders, the marchers chanted “The people united will never be defeated!” and “No on 187.”

Fillmore residents stood on their porches watching the parade.

Some bystanders said they planned to vote for the proposition despite the protest. “I just don’t think it’s right for them to carry the Mexican flag,” said Toni Tecau, 40, a lifelong Fillmore resident.

“I am tired of seeing us take care of all those immigrants,” said her husband, Richard.

When the marchers reached Central Park, they gathered to hear speeches urging them to vote against the proposition and against politicians who support it.

Also at the park, march organizers congratulated participants on their achievement.

“The march was fantastic,” said Joe Torres, a Fillmore High history teacher who advises the Chicano student group at the school.

Torres and students in his group said they spent hours last week averting threatened student walkouts. “We didn’t want to lose the school time. We didn’t want to have the stigma of the walkouts,” Torres said.

He said Fillmore High was the only predominantly Latino high school in Ventura County where students have not walked out during the school day to protest the proposition. Instead, they produced and screened in school an educational video on the ballot measure. And they organized Saturday’s rally.

“We proved that we can have a peaceful march,” Torres said.

Lima is a Times staff writer and Stoll is a correspondent.