Corona del Mar students take stand on war

Deepa Bharath

At least 65 Corona del Mar High School students walked out of their

classes Friday afternoon and held hands in the quad for about an hour

to make a statement against the war.

Sophomore Todd Hawes said the students had started planning the

protest on Tuesday.

“A small group of us started talking about it after we heard

Ensign [Intermediate School] and Newport Harbor High were planning

walkouts,” he said. “The word got out pretty fast just with fliers

and people talking to one another.”

However, Ensign Intermediate School and Newport Harbor High

students were not successful in staging a protest.

Ensign Principal Mike McGuire said the students have their

constitutional rights and that they can be exercised before or after

school. He said that teachers were trying to explain the conflict to

students so they can form opinions of their own.

A walkout, McGuire said, “is not so much a stance as it is a

chance to get out of class.”

Newport Harbor High School students’ efforts were unsuccessful

reportedly because of a lack of response.

But at Corona del Mar High, the students walked out of class 15

minutes into the fourth period at about noon and remained in the quad

for an hour, Hawes said. School administrators did not allow news

media inside the campus, but Hawes, who came out to the sidewalk to

talk to reporters, said students held banners that read “Start Peace”

and wore T-shirts that read “War is never won.”

“This war is being fought for horribly unjust reasons,” he said.

“We see the drastic effect it’s going to have on America’s place in

the world. This Texas vigilante has decided that he’s going to spread

democracy by any means. It’s just continuing imperialism into the

21st century.”

Hawes said the students’ walkout is not a reflection of the

popular opinion in his school.

“The majority of the students are pro-war because their parents

are,” he said. “That’s why I think it’s important we tell our

conservative community that there are students in Newport Mesa who

believe that peace is the only way.”

Coroner del Mar eighth-grader Marit Zachman said she signed up to

show her support for the pro-war faction on campus.

“I feel that we need to support our troops,” she said. “If we

don’t do something to Saddam soon, he’s going to do something to us.”

Principal Sharon Fry said the students who staged the walkout will

be considered truant and will face detention.

“They know and understand the consequences,” she said. “They’re

prepared to face the consequences.”

Fry said it is important for students to know “what they’re doing

and why they’re doing it.”

“I think our students are making a statement,” she said. “I’m

proud of the way they’re going about it.”