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May 1, 2008 4:56 am US/Pacific
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LAUSD Prepares For Student Activism On May Day
LOS ANGELES
In an attempt to keep students from walking out of classrooms to partake in May Day rallies, Los Angeles Unified schools will hold open forums during lunch hours to discuss immigration and other issues.
As in previous years, LAUSD officials will try to entice students to stay in class by offering them an opportunity to speak their minds at forums. Immigration topics will also be made part of the curriculum in social studies classes, said LAUSD spokeswoman Susan Cox.
In 2007, as many as 1,500 students walked out of 15 LAUSD schools on May Day -- most going downtown to join an estimated 10,000 people who gathered to call for a path for citizenship for illegal immigrants.
Some protest organizers passed by campuses with bullhorns in the morning, urging students to skip school and take part in the protest. District officials ended up sending buses to the rallies to bring students back to their campuses.
Though the exact number of absences reported on May Day in 2007 was not made available, it was significantly less than in 2006, when 71,942 absences were reported among students in grades 6 through 12, Cox said.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)