Mar 27, 2006 4:44 pm US/Central
North Texas Students Protest Immigration Bill
by Steve Pickett
DALLAS (CBS 11 News) ―
Thousands of north Texas students walked out of class Monday to protest a proposed immigration bill.
Some 4,000 students from across north Texas… Dallas schools, Duncanville and Carrollton all marched in mass, leaving their campuses, blocking streets and intersections with police escorts.
Students left their campuses, staging a mass demonstration against immigration reform.
More than 2,000 students gathered at Dallas City Hall to have their voices heard.
The protest was viewed as a stand for their families and a statement against certain provisions of immigration reform.
"We don't believe that the immigration policy that George Bush is trying to pass with the law and everything, is not right for the rest of the Latinos, because it's putting us at risk and it's our family members and we just don't think that that's right, right now," said Townview High School student, Cindy Santoya.
The Chinese built our railroads; we force the Irish to fight our wars; and now the Mexicans; we're building your roads we are taking care of your children, we're doing all these things for you… and then for you to oppress us now," said Skyline High School Student, Jesus Alonzo.
The walkout started aoround 10 a.m., with students leaving their schools and walking for miles to two designated locations… Keist Park in Oak Cliff and Dallas City Hall.
There are 99,000 Hispanic students in the Dallas school system, about 47,000 of them are in the category of being 'limited English proficient', which means a good number of them could very well come from families that have come the U.S. in some sort of illegal status.
Keep in mind students did leave campus for the protest. School officials say they will be counted as 'absent' from school and not penalized any other way.
(CBS 11 News)
