Students Incited to Leave Campus in Prop. 209 Protest

Encouraged by a small group of San Francisco Bay Area political activists with a bullhorn, about two dozen San Fernando High School students walked off campus Monday afternoon to protest Proposition 209, the affirmative action initiative, leading to arrests and trauncy citations.

Three members of By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), a Bay Area group that supports affirmative action and opposes the proposition, were arrested by school police for allegedly disturbing the peace, said Los Angeles Unified School District officials. They were identified as Mark Airgood, Dorothy Hamilton and Heather Bergman, all of Oakland.

About 20 students were cited for truancy, officials said.

Police said the BAMN group, shouting encouragement from outside the school fence, urged the students to leave campus to protest Proposition 209. The initiative, on the ballot in today’s election, would abolish racial and gender preferences in hiring, contracting and college admissions by the state and local governments.

“I believe the three outsiders used bullhorns trying to get the students to walk out,” said assistant school district Police Chief Larry Hutchens.

When the students walked out of the school gates, “there were rocks and bottles thrown at police,” Hutchens said.

There were no injuries, but police issued truancy citations to ensure the students’ quick return to campus, he said. Officers from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Foothill station also assisted.

Members of the Bay Area group played a leading role in a raucous demonstration at Cal State Northridge in September when former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke spoke in favor of Proposition 209 in a campus debate. A large crowd gathered to protest his presence. Los Angeles police fired rubber bullets and rode into the crowd on horseback to disperse the shouting protesters.