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Apr 30, 2007 1:49 pm US/Pacific
Students Who Skip School During Rally May Be Cited
LOS ANGELES (CBS) ―
Top school, city and religious leaders came together Monday to warn students to stay in school Tuesday during pro-immigration May Day rallies, urging the youngsters to debate the issue in classrooms and not the streets.
Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent David L. Brewer III said children who skip class risk receiving a truancy citation.
"We want you to learn how to exercise your rights inside the classroom. We do not want you out on the streets of Los Angeles because it is not safe for you to be there," Brewer said at a news conference at the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex. The superintendent was joined by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Cardinal Roger Mahony in encouraging students to stay in school.
"There will be consequences. We will mark them as unexcused absences and then we will leave it up to the principals of the schools to deal with them in accordance with district policy."
Police and transit officials are bracing for what may be up to a half million immigration rights protestors in the Civic Center and MacArthur Park areas Tuesday, when 60 bus routes will be rerouted and parts of 17 downtown streets will be closed for much of the day.
LAUSD students will spend Tuesday studying a curriculum prepared by the Constitutional Rights Foundation, which will teach students how to write petitions, contact their elected representatives and debate the issue of illegal immigration, Brewer said.
In the event students do participate in the downtown rallies, the district is prepared to send buses to pick up the children and bring them back to school. District officials did not say how much those buses would cost.
"As a precaution, we have to make sure they're safe. The last thing we want is for some child to get out there, get dehydrated, get disoriented and then we have a tragedy," Brewer said.
The district will also lose funding if a large number of students walkout of class. Schools lose about $30 a day for each absent student, according to the district.
"That's a lot of money," Brewer said. Mayor Villaraigosa said the students would learn more in the classroom.
"Their parents came to this country for a better life for their families, for their kids. They come to this country, sacrificing, working in the toughest jobs so their kids could have a great education," the mayor said.
Meanwhile, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell made a similar plea to students across the state.
"I encourage all California students to honor the struggles of immigrant parents by working hard in school on May 1 and every day of the school year," O'Connell said.
"The great civil rights leader Cesar Chavez was a friend of mine. I learned from him that organized protest can be a highly effective way of focusing attention on civil rights struggles. But, I also know that Cesar Chavez believed in education and would not want students to sacrifice their opportunity to get an education."
Organizers of two separate rallies for labor and immigration law reforms expect more than 100,000 people at the marches and demonstrations.
That's fewer than the roughly 500,000 persons who mobilized last year to protest current American immigration laws. The mayor said he expects about 20,000 people to attend the downtown rally.
"I'm not at this point expecting great numbers like last time," Villaraigosa said. "I don't see the same level of organization around this."
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
