Student protesters attack Iraq war
James Walsh, Star Tribune
November 3, 2005
Like many area high school students Wednesday, Andrew Worrall, 17, asked his parents if he could attend an anti-war rally and march at the University of Minnesota. His parents said, "No."
Worrall, a Roseville Area High School student who was snapping digital pictures for the school newspaper, decided to go anyway and risk a grounding.
"It's important to be part of something that will make a difference," he said from the plaza at Coffman Memorial Union. "Even if people don't think it's going to make a difference."
More than 1,000 students, many of them from 40 Twin Cities-area high schools, joined Worrall -- some risking parental punishment or school discipline -- to protest the war in Iraq and the presence of military recruiters on campus. Organized by Youth Against War and Racism and the larger Socialist Alternative, the rally began at Coffman before weaving through campus and stopping traffic along several blocks of Washington Avenue before ending up in front of the Army and Navy recruiting offices on Washington at Oak Street.
University Police Chief Greg Hestness estimated the crowd at a little more than 1,000 people. Protest organizer Ty Moore of Socialist Alternative put the number closer to 1,500.
Hundreds of people stood to the side and gawked as sign-bearing, slogan-chanting students marched past. Onlookers took photographs or made cell phone calls to friends. Some applauded.
About 25 counter-demonstrators followed along, before parking across from the recruiting station and blaring "Stars and Stripes Forever" from a pickup truck.
Will Marean, a University of Minnesota student, carried a sign that read: "Get your [behind] Back to Class!" He said he suspects that much of the group's youthful zeal had to do with taking a day off from school rather than concern about the war.
"We're here today to offer a diversity of opinion on campus," Marean said of his group, which stated its support for U.S. troops in Iraq and for the mission there.
But Megan Martinson, a 10th-grader at Roseville, said she has been active politically for years. She attended her first rally in seventh grade, she said. And she, too, said protesting the war is important enough to risk discipline.
"I'm cutting class," she said, noting that her grades will probably be reduced from A's to A-minuses as a result.
As the crowd cheered, chanted and listened to speakers at Coffman, University of Minnesota student Jeff Bjorlin walked past. A freshman and member of the Army ROTC, Bjorlin said he doesn't mind the protests. "It's what I've signed up to defend," he said. But he added that he believes the students' opposition to recruiters' activities at high schools and colleges is misplaced.
"The recruiters are just doing their jobs," he said, pointing out that recruiting makes it possible to avoid a military draft. "They should be able to do their jobs."
Police mostly watched from the sidelines. While the group didn't have permission to block off streets, Hestness said, university police went ahead of the marchers to divert traffic for several blocks. Hestness said the event was peaceful.
The walkout is part of a nationwide protest, said Socialist Alternative's Moore.
School turnout varied widely
In general, schools reported by organizers to be hotbeds of support for the walkout had only modest defections. Only about 20 students from Bloomington Kennedy and 10 from Bloomington Jefferson walked out. Each school has about 1,700 students.
Andrew O'Brien, 17, a Kennedy senior and one of the walkout organizers, was disappointed that more students weren't participating. He said the timing of the protest, during end-of-quarter tests, was a problem. And, he said, "A lot of kids are pretty apathetic about the war, and about politics in general."
One exception was South High School in Minneapolis, where Principal Linda Nelson guessed 200 to 300 students left. She said she won't know until students bring in notes from parents how many of those absences were excused. Those students can make up any work missed, including quarter-ending finals that fell this week.
South students Emily Kastrul, 16, and Esther Kearney, 17, joined their friend Becca Miner, 17, of St. Louis Park High School at the rally.
"I'm missing two classes," Kastrul said, adding that her parents called the school ahead of time. "It's just one day out of the school year," she said.
Added Miner: "I feel like having opinions is useless unless you're willing to act on them."
Staff writer Steve Brandt contributed to this report. |
