Posted on 11/05/2004 5:44:27 AM PST by mondoman
BOULDER - Students were preparing to spend the night at Boulder High School Thursday to protest policies of the Bush administration.
About 50 students carrying guitars and boxes of crackers and Froot Loops took over part of the library at the end of the school day. They vowed not to leave until they had a chance to meet with elected officials.
Under an agreement with Principal Ron Cabrera, they were allowed to stay the night, but must clean up and be gone by 7 a.m., when the library opens.
A teacher and several parents agreed to be chaperones, Cabrera said.
It was not clear if they would meet with elected officials. A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, whose district includes Boulder, said no one from the congressman's office was scheduled to attend.
Stephen Lobanov Rostovsky, 17, a senior, said the protest is meant to get adults to hear their opinions.
Rostovsky said he talks to elected leaders, "but there's no assurance for me that someone will actually take me seriously."
"This is going to hopefully change that by letting people know that adolescents are there and by saying, 'We're not going to take this. We want a voice, too. We want a place in this democracy. . . . We should have a say.' "
The students' list of grievances cites the war in Iraq, which they called "unjust and misguided."
The students also oppose federal regulations requiring schools to admit military recruiters or lose funding.
The protesters are members of a group called Student Worker that periodically stages protests. In the past, it has opposed statewide student testing.
Thursday's protest was planned even before it was known who would win Tuesday's election, Rostovsky said.
English teacher Jim Vacca, the faculty adviser for Student Worker, said, "I think they seriously want to engage adults in talk about some of the issues that will affect them."
Student Worker is not affiliated with Boulder's peace community.
But, Vacca said, "I think the Boulder community at large is supportive of kids who take an active role in their own lives" and take a mature and reasoned look at issues.
Cabrera, the principal, initially said the students had to leave by 5 p.m., but he relented after meeting with Rostovsky.
"I'm not fearful they'll do damage to the school," Cabrera said.
"What we try to do at Boulder High is to have kids who can ask questions, sometimes challenge the status quo in a thoughtful manner, and I hope if we're doing our education right we're creating that kind of citizenry," the principal said.
I am not sure...I wonder if referring a gay student to a shrink or therapist for rehabilitative counseling would qualify as 'helping'?
Might get the kid in trouble. What would happen if a student, in good faith, gave a homosexual student a religious tract?
I don't know. Sometimes I think public schools are just one big petri dish for social scientists and other quacks with an agenda to experiment on a captive audience coerced to be there by law.
Pretty sick, right?
yep...
If you are indeed a student at Boulder High School, my sincerest advice to you would be for you to immediately enroll in a remedial porogram for spelling and grammar.
At this point, that would serve you much better than wasting any more time trying to impress that socialist goofball, Mr. Vacca.
I, on the other hand, still need remedial typing.
and when did these "students" become experts on war?
I dunno. But they certainly know something about being "misguided".
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