High school students march against Iraq war

Several hundred students walked out of classes to create their own civics lesson Friday in downtown Seattle, protesting the war in Iraq and apparently prompting a military recruiting station to close for the afternoon.

The targets of the demonstrators -- mostly President Bush and U.S. involvement in Iraq, but also racism and big business -- were typical of other protest marches that start at Westlake Park and halt traffic.

		Scott Eklund / P-I
	Samantha Davis, 15, of Sammamish High School, left, and Pippen Maynard, 16, of Best High School, holding sign, were out front during Friday's student protest in downtown Seattle.

What was different was the age of the demonstrators. Most were from high schools from Everett to Tukwila, Seattle to the Eastside.

Fresh-faced speakers said the money spent on the war should be used to improve schools and pay for college educations.

Jonas Buck and Julian Weller, both 16 and juniors at Ingraham High School, believed the protest would make a difference.

"We're showing peers it's all right to be involved," said Buck, who estimated that 70 Ingraham students participated.

Weller said he encountered some resistance when he tried to encourage more to come.

"A lot of people at school say, 'It will not make a difference,' 'It's not worth it,' 'I can learn things at school,' " said Weller, wearing a hand-lettered T-shirt with a misspelled message: "Patriotism is not synnonimous with stupidity."

"We can't vote yet," Weller said. "This is one of the few ways to get our opinion noticed."

The demonstration was organized by local members of Youth Against War and Racism, a student-led group founded by Socialist Alternative, an organization that opposes "the global capitalist system."

After an hourlong rally at Westlake Park, the crowd marched to the Central Area, escorted at times by 18 motorcycle police officers, flanked by dozens of officers on bicycles and trailed by three squad cars.

One driver stuck in traffic caused by the marchers showed his displeasure with a middle-finger salute.

"They have a right to protest but don't disrespect the flag," said William Kaminski, pointing to a man displaying a U.S. flag upside down, the sign of distress. "They're allowed to protest because veterans died for them."

The man holding the flag, a retired Franklin High teacher who declined to give his name, said that "true patriots understand we're in a distress situation."

		Scott Eklund / P-I
	Students on the school bus from Washington Middle School trade peace signs with marchers along South Jackson Street in Seattle during a rally Friday to protest the war in Iraq and other causes.

The man said he demonstrated against the Vietnam War 38 years ago and now was "in solidarity" with students.

When marchers arrived at an Army and Navy recruiting station off 23rd Avenue South, they found the office closed and surrounded by police barricades,

"They can't recruit anyone," crowed Matthew Pfeiffer, a student at Nova, an alternative public high school in Seattle, as students conducted a sit-in. "This is a direct action" caused by the protest.

A Seattle Public Schools spokesman said the district "does not condone" students walking out of class. Each school will determine whether students would suffer consequences.

The Seattle School Board approved new restrictions in August on military recruitment on campuses, allowing recruiters -- as well as non-military businesses and colleges -- two visits per school, per year, among other provisions.

Protesters called for a ban on all recruiting in lieu of an annual, districtwide recruiting fair.