Brea-Olinda Students Block Street to Protest Pep Rally’s Cancellation

Scores of Brea-Olinda High School students walked off campus Thursday and staged a sit-down strike in the middle of a busy street to protest the cancellation of a popular spirit rally.

School officials said about 200 students took part, though police said about one-third that number blocked traffic.

The demonstration on Wild Cat Way was broken up by about 40 officers and school officials, who described the teens as unruly. No one was injured or arrested.

“There were probably a couple of rabble-rousers who stirred up the pot,” said Brea Police Sgt. Tom Flenniken. “The others probably went along because of peer pressure.”

The protest, which had been advertised in fliers posted on the campus the day before, began during a class break about 11 a.m. More than 400 students gathered in the campus quad and marched through the football stadium and then off campus, police said.

The size of the group began to diminish as the students, some shouting at officers, walked along the sidewalk and spilled into the street. Ultimately, up to 70 students sat on the sidewalk and in two lanes of the street, forcing police to divert traffic.

There were no physical confrontations between the authorities and students, but one boy’s father drove to the protest, located his son and dragged him away by the ear.

“The kid was pretty embarrassed,” Flenniken said.

The 30-minute protest ended when Principal Kathleen Beard walked out and told the students to go back to classes.

She said participants will receive written notices that they were not in class. Students who miss more than six classes are assigned a Saturday session, she said.

Beard said she canceled the rally in response to several incidents in recent weeks, including an occasion when someone threw firecrackers at other students and a light-hearted competition that dissolved into a food fight.

“We canceled it out of concern for student safety,” she said. “I could not, with good conscience, put all the kids together in the gym and risk injury or our history of wonderful rallies.”

The rally was scheduled for today and was to have included class competitions, jazz and rock bands and dancers.

Some students said their principal was being unfair.

“Why should the whole school be punished for something a few people did?” said Marisa Morrill, 16. Nevertheless, she chose not to take part in the demonstration because “classes are more important than walking out.”

Freshman Alex Guerrero, 15, felt strongly enough that he joined the protest.

“There was no reason to cancel the rally,” he said. “We made a statement . . . to show them we won’t just sit down and take no for an answer.”