200 L.A. students leave school to protest budget cuts

More than 200 students have gathered outside the Santee Education Complex near downtown Los Angeles this morning to protest the Los Angeles Unified School District's proposed budget cuts.

The cuts would lay off thousands of teachers districtwide and increase class sizes.

Most of the students protesting are from Santee and Lincoln High School in East L.A. They were being monitored by school administrators for their safety.

School buses were standing by to take students back to their schools, said district spokeswoman Gayle Pollard-Terry.

At Manual Arts High School near USC, students were being urged not to demonstrate today. Posters were hung throughout campus, telling students to "Chill."

-- Ruben Vives

Comments

[Paul]

Protest to your parents, you dopes. They're the ones who voted in the special election to make these cuts. The government has nothing to do with it.

[cody]

as we know students do drop out of school, but with teachers being layed off the drop out rate will continue to rise right along with drug use will become rampant, as well as of course crime will continue to rise to dangerous level.

[Lynn]

This is being held during school hours and now they are truant. By not giving tickets and routing them back to classes where desperately need to be (considering the test scores, drop out levels, and our ranking in the country/the world) the school administration, law enforcement, and teachers are condoning this delinquency. They can have constructive discussions in english, and government classes where they can be given assignments on coming up with constructive solutions to this never ending problem. Encouraging these kids this way is ridiculous. The statistics show they cannot afford to miss any days of school. They need to be routed back to school their lack of attendance is not only hurting their education (or the lack thereof ) but the schools cannot afford the money it is not going to get due to today’s attendance (I guess they can afford it). This is definitely not they only way to go about this. This is a great time to introduce instruction on dollars and sense assignments, in addition to introducing social economical issues and solution (for money do not just drop out of the sky) and problem solving skills. This is a good example of why we need more fortune 500 companies to get involved in our educational system it is obvious that our teachers and school administration need continued education (the only thing they can come up with is walking out). It is definitely time for a change.

[Pablo]

Now, there's a novel idea: let's skip school to show 'em how school is so important to us. I wonder what brainy teacher set them up.

[Bob Johnson]

Good, that's 200 less students that need to be taught, which should lead to a reduction in the amount of money the worthless teachers' union sinks into their black hole for today.

[anon]

Wow.

I'm soooooo impressed.

It's such a sacrifice to cut class.

How about they "protest" on a Saturday?

Or give up their cell-phones for a month to protest the cuts?

Now THAT would be impressive.

[anon]

BTW:

Are the students paying for that "monitoring" and for those buses and bus drivers waiting to whisk them back to "safety"?

[Crash27]

Skipping school to show everyone the importance of a good education? BRILLIANT!

[Jennifer]

Ouch! Why do you all hate teachers so much?

[Alan]

Let's see. These students are being taught that it's all right to break the law to get what you want. That's consistent behavior. Many of those kids have been throwing temper tantrums to get their way since the were little. A consequence of both parents working (or one or both not being there) and never learning how to deal with children who are constantly pushing the boundaries to find the safe part of this big world. If the boundaries aren't there, of course, they never feel secure, and they never learn to control their behavior. But, of course, teaching them responsibility is what schools are for, isn't it?

[Very simple]

If these "students" really cared about their education, why is the dropout rate in LAUSD a horrifically bad 50%+ ?

[Roman A]

I bet my next paycheck that everyone of the students that walked out of class is failing most if not all their classes, and the teachers are doing nothing about it, no wait....they sent buses to monitor them. Way to go Administration! Thank you for being such great role models and doing your job in keeping kids in class. Who is paying for the Buses and the drivers that are on standby? Will that money come from the classroom they were supposed to be in? Let us look to the UNION for guidance. They will save your jobs!

[Nicole, Los Angeles]

What wrath towards these students! They are standing up for themselves and their rights because no one else is standing up for them.
"And these children that you spit on;
As they try to change their worlds;
Are immune to your consolations;
They're quite aware of what they're going through"
How many of you comment makers have children? If so, how many are in LAUSD schools?
Don't pigeonhole these youths as troublemakers and delinquents - how insular

[Teacher]

Do you teachers actually care about your students? Students at Santee--probably Mechistas--are being manipulated by a few teachers, so-called "organizers" who are using these poor students as peons for thier own cause. When do you ever see teachers walking-out to support the students' educational needs?

[Chris]

Santee Education Complex has a drop-out rate of over 50% (California Department of Education). When Santee does not have a "college going" culture for their students and instead directs students to service sector employments (e.g. travel, tourism and social justice), I think it is hard to argue that firing teachers will somehow adversely affect students. Are teachers, administrators, the school district, and policy makers really invested in these students' education?

[m]

I wonder how many commentators are actually parents. Have you considered that first, these children have a constitutional right to protest and, second, these children have rights to exist and to speak for themselves. How can teachers possibly teach, manage and effectively maintain the interest of a classroom of fifty students. The dropout rate is 50% in LA schools? It doesn't surprise me, considering the hopelessness the lack of jobs and opportunity breeds along with the extreme cost of living and lack of affordable housing. Why don't some "grownups" begin to take notice of the overall problem and ask a few sound questions such as why there is such a lack of opportunity and a lack of interest in community development in our area. Let's go ahead and buy GMC's imports from China to "save" the company and "our" economy. We didn't educate our own children effectively in physics and math and enable them to attend Engineering School. How could "the people" possibly have the shortsightedness to vote further cuts to health and education in our State?