Santa Monica Students Part of Nationwide Protest

By Erica Williams
Staff Writer

March 5 -- With a U.S.-led war against Iraq seemingly days away, hundreds of local college and high school students Wednesday joined tens of thousands of their colleagues nationwide in what was likely the biggest campus antiwar protest since the Vietnam War.

More than 1,200 students from Santa Monica College, as well as students from five local high schools, participated in a series of protests across the city. More than 200 of the protesters descended on City Hall, where they were met by about 50 police officers.

There were no arrests, police said.

The rallies began at Santa Monica College, where about 500 students met on the campus "Free Speech" area in the morning. They then marched down Pico Boulelvard to the amphitheater for an old-fashioned teach-in that swelled the ranks of protesters to more than 1,200, said Bruce Smith, the college's spokesman.

"The event went very peacefully," Smith said. "We felt it was a very good educational experience for the students."

Inspired by the morning's events, about 200 protesters spontaneously spilled into local streets, marching down sidewalks along Pico Boulevard to City Hall, organizers said.

In the afternoon, the raucous crowd gathered on the City Hall lawn chanting "No Blood For Oil," as police officers lined the entrance to the building and quietly watched as protesters shouted them down.

"We're here to draw attention so people realize" that they're not alone if they oppose a war with Iraq, yelled one organizer through a bullhorn.

Juana Masa, 19, a student member of the antiwar group Not in Our Name said her group wanted to encourage the community to band together against the war and wanted to send a message that "we aren't going to stand for business as usual."

"This war is unjust," said Masa, a sophomore at SMC. "This war is not going to happen in our name."

The group challenged workers to call in sick and business owners to close up shop Wednesday as part of a "national moratorium to stop the war on Iraq," wire reports said. It has not yet been determined whether any widespread sick outs took place.

Lelani, another sophomore at the college who declined to give her last name, said she felt compelled to participate because she wanted to let people know that their government was not representing them.

"I want the people of Iraq to know that I don't support a war against them," she said, adding that she was tired of U.S. domination around the world.

Brianna Pruett, 20, an art major in her first year at SMC, said she was against the war, though she believed that Saddam Hussein was a negative force in the region.

"I don't condone war on Iraqi citizens in order to propagate our country's thirst for oil," she said.

Though Pruett reported that police threatened students with arrest after they staged a temporary sit-in on Pico Boulevard, Lt. Frank Frabrega said no arrests were made and everything proceeded peacefully.

After the brief rally on the City Hall lawn, the protesters proceeded along 2nd Street to the Third Street Promenade to host an impromptu public forum on the war.