Rubidoux High students walk out, protest in response to teachers’ posts

About 150 Rubidoux High students walked out of school early Friday afternoon to protest disparaging Facebook posts and comments teachers made about those who participated in Thursday’s national boycott, “A Day Without Immigrants.”•...

Rubidoux High students walk out, protest in response to teachers’ posts

About 150 Rubidoux High students walked out of school early Friday afternoon to protest disparaging Facebook posts and comments teachers made about those who participated in Thursday’s national boycott, “A Day Without Immigrants.”

• Related: Teachers from Jurupa Valley’s Rubidoux High on leave for ‘Day Without Immigrants’ social media posts

They held Mexican flags, and chanted, “Mexico, Mexico!” and “Que Viva la Raza!” as they walked on sidewalks and in the middle of streets. Many wore red.

As students made their way toward Patriot High and walked back to Rubidoux High, drivers honked in approval and cheered them on.

• Related: Social media reaction to Rubidoux High teachers’ comments on immigration

Students were protesting by noon Friday and Riverside County sheriff’s deputies were at the scene keeping protesters and the general public safe.

Educators applauded the fact that Latino students missed class on Thursday for the national “A Day Without Immigrants” boycott. The comments included statements calling students “lazy” and “drunk” and noted that the cafeteria was cleaner without them.

Freshman student Vianey Camacho, 14, said many of the students became aware of the teacher comments through social media Thursday night.

And teachers, she said, acted like “it was a normal day” Friday. The comments were not addressed in class, she said.

Camacho said students planned not to buy anything from the student store, as a boycott, to protest the teachers’ comments.

The walkout, “kind of just happened.”

She said some walked out during lunch, and soon others followed.

Others, however, stayed in school and participated in a peaceful sit-in inside. Those students said, “they wanted to do it the right way.”

Victoria Rodriguez, a Rubidoux student, said the walkout protests, “didn’t prove anything.”

Bernice Meza, 17, watched what started as a peaceful protest during lunch become chaotic. Some students tried to put up the Mexican flag on the flagpole, she said. Others ran, threw food and tried to leave campus but the gate was locked.

Administrators, who cut lunch short by 20 minutes, opened the gate because so many students wanted to get out. Some students jumped on cars and started walking toward Patriot High School two and half miles away, Meza said.

Meza, who didn’t participate in the walkout because she was in the office talking to administrators, said she was disappointed in some of her classmates’ behavior.

“I feel like it’s giving us a bad image,” Meza said. “People are going to associate us with people who are choosing to be disruptive and people who want to leave class just to leave class. Not everyone in this movement is violent. Not everyone wants to walk out of class and vandalize everything. We want to let everyone know that we’re not going to be suppressed.”

Meza, an honors student with a 4.1 GPA, said she took Advanced Placement history class last year from Geoffrey Greer, whose post began the string of comments in question. Greer was opinionated and controversial but challenged students to think, she said.

Meza said she no longer admires Greer.

“Now we know what he really thinks of us,” she said.

Staff writer Alicia Robinson contributed to this report.

More to come.

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