- Students protest
passage of I-200
- SUNNYSIDE
(11-4-98)--Protesting yesterday's overwhelming passage of
anti-affirmative action Initiative 200, about 175
Sunnyside High School students walked out of class at
around 10:30 a.m. today.
-
- Ignoring warnings from SHS
Principal Bob Thomas, the mostly-Hispanic marchers walked
ten or so blocks up Edison Avenue. At about 11:30 a.m.,
they rallied at United Farmworkers union offices at 412
S. 6th Ave.
-
- Thomas told YVN he tried to
reason with protesters. But the kids, convinced they were
"losing their college opportunities because of I-200",
wouldn't listen to him.
-
- "I met them at the front
steps (of SHS) and asked them to go the auditorium and
sit down and talk about it," Thomas said. "They refused
my invitation and took off."
-
- Thomas said he had no
problems with the kids' "cause". What concerns him is the
fact they did leave school, violating rules. He said
teachers took names of all 175 or so students who left
campus. Each faces a three-day
suspension.
-
- Thomas said "They were
peaceful, but they ignored directives to stay in school
and sit down and discuss the problem. They violated rules
by getting out of class, and they created a dangerous
situation walking down street in a large group", Thomas
said.
-
- Thomas said the kids were
confused, because college loans come from the feds.
They're immune to laws passed in Washington state. It
also seemed a little late for action, because voting took
place yesterday. "We could have discussed all this if
they'd have sat and reasoned with me," he
said.
-
- One SHS teacher said he was
in class at 10:30 a.m. when three of his students "just
stood up and walked out." Later, he learned this happened
in many SHS classrooms at the same time.
-
- Suspicions were that some
adult sparked the walkout, because of the even timing
throughout the school. That has not been
confirmed.
-
- One girl at the
predominantly Hispanic rally said "We're protesting
I-200. And if you notice, there are some white women
protesting, too," she said.
-
- Meanwhile, Sunnyside police
were closely monitoring the flap. They were on the case
during the march and a few minutes later at the United
Farmworkers office. Officer Phil Schenck stopped the kids
from spilling out in the street and causing a traffic
hazard. He also told them not to block the
sidewalk.
-
- In minutes, the kids crossed
the street into Egley's Men's Wear parking lot, still
carrying a "No on I-200" placard. One unseen kid tossed a
small object at Schenck, but he ignored it. Another light
object struck a radio ad salesman in the back, but he
wasn't injured.
-
- The group left 6th Avenue,
then rallied minutes later at the Taco Bell restaurant
about a mile away on Yakima Valley Highway. Taco Bell
manager Marisol Ambriz told YVN the kids were "a little
loud" but did no damage to the fast-food building. "It
was not a normal lunch hour," she said.
|
 Taco
Bell, Sunnyside, WA, (11-4-98)
As if to
say:
Hey look, man.
Affirmative Action's all about US (above). We know YOU have
to pay for YOUR white kid to go to college. Too bad. We
don't give a damn. YOU need pay US out of your pocket to go
to college, too...or else. White
voter answer:
"Screw you--and the liberal dork you rode in
on."
-
- Lupe Gamboa, executive
director of the United Farmworkers of Washington, said at
4:30 p.m. his union had nothing to do with student
walkout and protest.
-
- "We weren't even here," he
said. "I wish we had been."
- The union leader said the
kids had helped his office in a pre-election political
campaign to defeat I-200 and pass the minimum wage law
.
-
- "The kids were upset about
Washington voters in all their wisdom to pass a law that
discriminates against minorities here," he
said.
-
- Gamboa said his organization
is "in contact with the American Civil Liberties Union to
see if we can do anything about the (school) suspensions.
The kids were exercising their first amendment rights of
freedom of assembly and speech."
-
- Gamboa indicated that, in
the Valley and in Sunnyside, officials aren't much aware
of the Constitution and rights of the people. He referred
to the suspensions as "Draconian"
measures.
-
- Police Chief Wallace
Anderson said officials need to maintain order for
everyone's safety.
-
- "Fortunately no one was hurt
as far as pedestrians or folks in vehicles. For the most
part (marchers) were pretty well mannered. I did hear
vulgar and obscene epithets driving by, but that was the
exception. I think (students) were ill advised to do what
they did. Fortunatly no one was hurt," he
said.
-
- Police reports Nov. 5
indicated three juveniles were arrested during the noon
hour for disorderly conduct and defying an order to leave
the premesis at Taco Bell and McDonald's
restaurants.
-
Arrested in the incidents were
an unnamed male juvenile of 904 W. 4th ; unnamed female
juvenile of 1107 Stassen Way, and an unnamed female juvenile
of 1309 Sandy Lane, all of Grandview.
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