Students Boycott Class to Protest Punishment : Thousand Oaks: About 100 demonstrate in support of three Lancer high school football players involved in a campus stabbing.

About 100 Thousand Oaks High School students boycotted class Thursday morning to protest punishment meted out to three senior football players involved in a campus stabbing last week.

The protest occurred about 9:45 a.m. when students congregated on the football field and refused to go to third period after their 15-minute morning break ended.

A handful of students said they organized the protest Wednesday night, telephoning their classmates to complain about the punishment against the three Lancer teammates and a fourth student, all of whom were involved in the May 4 brawl.

Word of the protest spread Thursday morning as students arrived for class. Students said the demonstration was scheduled at the same time the brawl took place a week earlier.

“We may have taken the wrong route with the walkout,” senior Stephen Beynun said. “But it was the only way we felt we could get our message across.”

Four students were arrested for their involvement in the fight that sent Rick Coletta, 18, to the hospital with a minor stab wound in the neck. Coletta, who was treated and released, was not arrested.

The 17-year-old student accused of stabbing Coletta was booked into Juvenile Hall for suspicion of felony assault. He was later released into the custody of his parents.

Three students who allegedly beat and kicked the 17-year-old after the stabbing were arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor assault. William Sperry, 19, Adam Knox, 18, and a 17-year-old boy were all cited and released the day after the fight.

Some students said the suspensions were punishment enough for Coletta and his friends.

“They’ve been arrested, suspended and had their graduation ceremonies taken away,” said senior Scott Lorenzen, who participated in the protest. “Getting kicked out is too much.”

Principal Keith E. Wilson said Thursday that all five students who took part in the fight were suspended for five days. On Thursday night, trustees of the Conejo Valley Unified School District discussed further disciplinary action against the students during a closed session before the regular board meeting.

After about 45 minutes on the football field Thursday morning, the students agreed to go back to class when administrators assured them that Wilson--who was off campus during the protest--would meet with them. Wilson said he planned to talk to the students today immediately after lunch.

“Some kids didn’t like a decision,” Wilson said. “That’s the way they protested it.”

Wilson said the student protesters were considered truant for the period they missed. He said he will leave discipline of the protesters up to individual teachers.

A Ventura County sheriff’s deputy was called to the campus as the students left class for the day. He reported no incidents.

“Our mere presence here seems to help,” Deputy Roger DeWames said.

Citing tensions between a few white athletes and some Latino students, some students speculated in the wake of the brawl last week that the stabbing may have been racially motivated. Coletta, Sperry and Knox and their 17-year-old classmate are white. The 17-year-old accused stabber is Latino.

But students participating in Thursday’s protest said race was not an issue.

“There’s some of that tension here,” Beynun said. “But that fight had nothing to do with race.”

The principal and sheriff investigators agreed.

Detective Frank O’Hanlon said Coletta and the accused stabber exchanged dirty looks between class periods, which led to a pushing match.

“I believe they call it mad-dogging,” O’Hanlon said of the staring contest. O’Hanlon said during the shoving match, the 17-year-old lunged at Coletta with a woodcarving knife, nicking the older boy in the neck. Coletta was treated and released from Los Robles Medical Center the same day.

Though Thursday was the last day of their suspension, Wilson said none of the students would be allowed to return to campus today pending other, unspecified disciplinary actions which Wilson declined to discuss.

“I won’t comment on those actions until the appeals are complete,” Wilson said. He said parents are appealing the unspecified actions.

Students involved in the protest said their five classmates have been kicked out of Thousand Oaks High School and forbidden to participate in graduation ceremonies and events.

The students said the punishment for the three students who came to Coletta’s assistance was too severe.

“What would you do if you just saw your friend stabbed?” Beynun said.