Aurora – Something about the images and stories of students abandoning their classrooms to rally for immigrant rights rubbed Ivan Torres the wrong way.
It seemed to the 17-year-old Aurora Central High School student that many of them were leaving behind a day of education to rally for a cause they didn’t fully understand.
“A lot of people were walking out but they didn’t know why,” he said on Monday when thousands of immigration-rights advocates took to the streets.
With the go-ahead from administrators, Torres teamed up with four friends and on Monday held two forums to give students information – such as copies of federal immigration legislation.
“If the people are informed, they have to make their own decision” about whether to protest, said Guillermo Barriga, a 16-year-old junior who helped organize the forum.
Across the metro area on Monday, a handful of districts reported rallies or walkouts. In the Adams 14 School District, about 200 students at Kearney Middle School in Commerce City went to a rally during the lunch hour but returned to class, spokeswoman Joan Hill said.
Aurora Central assistant principal Lynn Fair reported no walkouts, but students said the building appeared more than half-empty and that about 30 students participated in a rally at a nearby park.
Some schools tried to counter rallies with student-led forums.
At Greeley Central High School, students from the League of United Latin American Citizens organized a peaceful protest that included wearing white, eating sack lunches outside and singing the national anthem, principal Mary Lauer said.
At O’Connell Middle School in Lakewood, students also took part in a discussion, said Casey Mahon, a spokesman for the Jefferson County School District.
Meanwhile, state Rep. Dave Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs, decried the recent walkouts, saying in a press statement that schools can’t educate students “if this type of truancy goes unchecked.”
Back at Aurora Central, students Anabelle Cruz and Maria de la Cueva, both 18, sat under a shady tree holding signs. One said, “We are not the problem. We are the solution.”
“I think they should give immigrants a chance to become citizens,” de la Cueva said.
Staff writer Karen Rouse can be reached at 303-820-1684 or krouse@denverpost.com.
