AURORA — For the third straight day, hundreds of metro-area students took to the streets .
Students from several Aurora high schools, and at least one middle school, walked for miles to meet at the city’s municipal center, forcing a temporary lockdown of City Hall, courts and the main library branch.
Students blocked traffic in the area, drawing dozens of police officer escorts.
“We’re just all together as one,” said Jada Alexander, a sophomore at Range view High School.
An Aurora police officer handed one student a bullhorn, making her promise to keep her message “positive” and nonviolent. The student sat on the shoulders of a peer and shouted to the crowd, “We’re here for justice. This isn’t about race!”
Friday’s demonstrations come one day after , including a group of about 600 who walked about 7 miles from Abraham Lincoln High School to the Capitol chanting “Hands up, don’t shoot!,” the mantra of those protesting the death of Michael Brown in Missouri.
Students from Wednesday. The end of that demonstration was marred when four police bicycle officers were injured, one critically, when hit by a vehicle. , which caused the accident, police said.
The students in Aurora — including ones from Overland, Aurora Central, Smoky Hill, Rangely and Hinkley high schools — held a moment of silence just before 11:30 a.m. as part of their protest over the death of Brown and the death of Eric Garner in New York. Both were black men who were killed by white police officers.
The group then chanted, “Hands up, don’t shoot!”
Wellee Linga, a freshman at Rangely, held a sign that said, “THEY CAN’T KILL US ALL.”
“It’s a figure of speech,” she said. “If we all stand up, we can stand up to it.”
Student leaders attempted to keep the protest peaceful, although the police reported that a few had spit on patrol cars and banged on the vehicles with their hands. A brief fight also broke out around noon between two groups of students, but they appeared to settle it among themselves.
“Do not make it violent!” one student leader yelled in the early moments of the protest. “This is a nonviolent protest!”
Aurora Councilwoman Renie Peterson was out talking with the protesters. She said he hoped to get them to see that anger can be turned into something good.
“Yes, we are angry over what happened but we can take that anger and make something positive,” Peterson said.
Aurora police — who said their presence at the protests lowered response times elsewhere in the city and drew all available resources — urged students to disperse and head back to school.
The police department said the protest was mostly peaceful. The majority of students had left, some on buses provided by the school district, by about 1 p.m.
The march, organized by students at several high schools on Facebook, Twitter and through fliers, started about 10 a.m.
Some students told a reporter they were inspired by Denver students’ marches to hold their own.
“Everybody comes together,” said Jordan James Martinez, a junior from Hinkley High School, as he stood on the steps outside Aurora’s court. “It’s a good day.”
Staff writers Kieran Nicholson and Carlos Illescas contributed to this report.
Jesse Paul 303-954-1733, jpaul@denverpost.com or twitter.com/JesseAPaul
