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March 28, 2006

Pissed off with a purpose

These kids are learning the power of political exercise at an early age:

Thousands of students walked out of high schools in Los Angeles and across Southern California this morning as protests against restrictions on immigration spread across the city for a fourth day.

School walkouts were reported at schools in San Diego and Orange counties, and in the Santa Clarita Valley in northern Los Angeles County. There were also immigrant rights marches nationwide.

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In Los Angeles, dozens of schools experienced walkouts, with the major events downtown, where several thousand students converged on City Hall, and on the Westside and in the San Fernando Valley.

At midafternoon, student marchers descended onto the heavily-traveled 101 Freeway near downtown, snarling traffic and creating safety hazards, according to televised reports. The northbound freeway was restricted to one lane. The freeway later reopened after students exited on an off-ramp in Echo Park.

These children are afraid. Anti-immigration rhetoric has reached a fever pitch in this nation..and these kids have a lot to lose. Many of them are American citizens with parents here illegally..who've been here for decades. They stand to have their parents and other family members deported and sent away from them, leaving fractured families.

This isn't just some "ditch school day" for these kids. This is a groundswell of political protest and a backlash.

Posted by Carla at March 28, 2006 09:40 AM